Three astronauts are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 9. They won’t return to our world for six months. Instead, they’ll watch from the safety of outer space as a pandemic plays out some 250 miles beneath their feet.
Escaping Earth for six months might sound like a dream to most of humanity right now, but these spacefarers must be vigilant to avoid bringing COVID-19 aboard the ISS with them. The odds of that happening are low, but the consequences of an outbreak in orbit could have dire consequences. Medical supplies are limited on the ISS, and an emergency trip home could be both risky and tricky. So to plan for the worst, American and Russian space agencies have stepped up their preventive measures ahead of the launch of astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.
These three astronauts are not the ...
