Astronauts depart space station Thursday to a changed world

UPI ^ | 4/17/20 | Paul Brinkmann

[Libloather]

April 16 (UPI) -- Two astronauts and a cosmonaut were scheduled to depart from the International Space Station at 9:53 p.m. EDT Thursday after concluding their mission.

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, who has spent nine months living and working on the space station, will join NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos for the return flight.

All three had left Earth before the coronavirus pandemic began, as Meir noted in a live broadcast Friday from the space station.

"It's a little bit difficult to believe that we are truly going back to a different planet," Meir said. She added that watching from space as billions of people on Earth dealt with the pandemic was "surreal."

[Libloather]

[a fool in paradise]

Stay up there, shelter in place

[real saxophonist]

GMTA:

[bramps]

Ultimate social distancing.

[HighSierra5]

I can’t wait for the return of Americans on American spaceships to return to orbit in May. This country needs a shot in the arm.

[polymuser]

Do they get to take their PPE home for trips go the store?

[polymuser]

. For $135 or so, it might be fun to get one of these costumes to wear when out and about now...

[Leep]

They are well supplied for their mission.

[DesertRhino]

The wrong stuff

[ssfromla]

I don't think one thing in their life will be different than before they left. They're the 1% after all.

The elite and the things they are throwing at us to get our our minds off the fact that they have taken away our god given rights is tiring.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*