Fellowship of the Wing

Wartime sanctions, space station dramas, and divergent socio-political agendas notwithstanding, American and Russian spacefarers are making ready to journey to the International Space Station (ISS)—together.

American astronaut and U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Rubio is set to depart Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard an ISS-bound, Russian-made, Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Rubio will travel in the company of cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, of whom the Colonel states: “They’ve become good friends of mine. Sergey is a former Russian Air Force pilot, Dimitry is an engineer, but more importantly, you know, they’ve gotten to know my family. I’ve gotten to know their families. We all have very similar priorities … Family comes first, and then our main focus is to make this mission happen as safely and productively as possible to ensure that we get everything that’s been tasked us done.”

Peopling space vehicles with hybrid American-Russian crews has been common practice since the U.S. and Russia set about building the ISS in the 1990s. The interval between the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle program and the advent of commercial space launch concerns the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin saw a total of 38 American astronauts hitch rides on 35 different Soyuz launches at a kingly fare of $86-million per seat—comparable to a first-class ticket on Etihad Airways.

Prior to blasting off, Colonel Rubio and his crewmates will undergo weeks of training and examinations before sitting out a tedious COVID-19 quarantine. Draconian COVID protocols, regrettably, remain part and parcel of 21st Century spaceflight.

“I feel proud,” Rubio remarks. “I think all of us probably feel a little bit nervous, just because of the sense of responsibility that we have for everything that’s involved in this.”

In space, Rubio and his Russian pals will conduct scientific experiments germane to biofabrication—the creation of bio-analogous materials such as artificial skin and blood. Additionally, Rubio and his crewmates will consume meals laden with Omega-3s and vitamins as part of another experiment that seeks to assess nutrition in space. A medical doctor, Colonel Rubio asserts he’s eager to undertake subject experiments.

Of on-duty chow, Colonel Doctor Rubio opines: “The good thing about being an Army astronaut is that I’m used to eating MREs quite a bit being out in the field; and so [sic] I think that’s prepared me well for my six months on the station.”

A Miami native, Rubio served as a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot, flying more than 1,100-hours during assignments in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Upon returning to the U.S., Rubio earned his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, and became a battalion surgeon. That Colonel Rubio’s life experience is vast and varied cannot be disputed.

Nevertheless, spaceflight is frontier new to the Colonel, who reflects: “Just to be one of the very incredibly lucky and blessed few that get to do this, it’s a humbling feeling.”

FMI: www.nasa.gov