'No Way': Veteran NASA Astronaut Can Hardly Believe SpaceX, Boeing's New Spaceships and Spacesuits
NASA Astronauts are about to take their first official flights aboard not the spacecraft that are built not by government agencies, but by commercial companies like SpaceX and Boeing. It was a prospect that, a few years ago, mission veterans would have a great deal of trouble believing.
"No way" would they have believed back then, that a group outside of NASA, the Russian Roscosmos and other government-backed agencies could take astronauts to space, according to astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams. She is one of four "space pioneers" tapped from back in 2015 to test and fly the new spacecraft and gear.
"Five years ago, this would have been like, 'No way, what are we doing asking commercial providers to be able to do this?'" Williams said in an interview with the Business Insider. She and other experienced astronauts like her are set to fly the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, spacecraft designed to ferry crew and supplies to and from the International Space Station.
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The SpaceX Crew Dragon, for instance, was designed not just for utility but also as a first attempt at making spaceflight "an enjoyable ride." To that end, there are plenty of windows offering views of the Earth and beyond, which passengers can enjoy from seats made of high-grade carbon fiber and Alcantara cloth.
"Now it feels like a natural progression for space travel," Williams added. The streamlined controls are one of the things that grabbed her attention when making the transition to the commercial spacecraft.
"The space shuttle was just littered with switches," she said, looking back at the design of the space shuttle that borrowed heavily from commercial airline design. "You look at the cockpit, and there's switches everywhere," she added.
That said, the relatively minimal controls for the Crew Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner can't help but make the astronauts feel the absence of physical switches and buttons. For Williams, a set of backup controls in case the touchscreen panels go haywire would give them a sense of security.
"It is a spacecraft, and there are some things that have to happen whether or not the electrons are flowing," she pointed out.
