They will be isolated there in a special hotel
for astronauts, as is customary. But on launch
day, there won’t be the usual cheering,
back-slapping throngs of well-wishers or
journalists either.
Their families, bosses and dozens of others
normally jam a special room behind a glass wall
while the astronauts put on their spacesuits
before liftoff.
Not this time.
“We’ll be looking through the glass at maybe
one video camera or something like this and
then we’ll get on the bus” to go to a launch pad
with a minimal team there, Cassidy said.
As for the Feb. 19 crew switch, Cassidy, from
York, Maine, initially was “crushed” by the news.
The former chief of NASA’s astronaut corps and
two-time space flier, Cassidy already knew the
backup cosmonauts..
“So no issues there,” he said. However, “my heart
hurt for my two friends who thought they were
so close to a rocket launch and were not going
to get one,” he told the AP.
Invanishin, like Cassidy an experienced
spaceman, said earlier this week that he’s
surprised to be suddenly rocketing away, “but
life happens.” He said the crew swap could
have occurred even closer to launch and so
the three have had “some time for the news to
settle in.”
Cassidy acknowledges his stress level is higher
than usual right now from worrying about his
loved ones.
“We’re only human,” he said, “and we’ll work
through it and be fine.”