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Friday, March 27, 2020
Volume 16 • Issue No. 13
Chris Cassidy
By Nancye Tuttle, Staff Writer YORK Two weeks ago, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, from York, looked forward to hosting his mother, Janice, and brother, Jeff, plus other family and friends, for his April 9 space launch from Russia to the International Space Station. Flying approximately 220 miles above the earth, the station will be his home for the next six months. And on this, his third space mission, Cassidy, 50, will be the commander, working with two Russian cosmonauts. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck and plans changed dramatically. Cassidy will still go into space, but he is now in quarantine, and plans for guests at the launch are cancelled. “He’s disappointed,” Janice Cassidy said on Monday.
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Scheduled to Launch
“There’s usually a big parade in Moscow and then everyone flies to the launch site. But Russia closed its borders and everything is shut down.” Cassidy, an engaging former Navy SEAL, spoke with The Sentinel 2 ½ weeks ago before COVID-19 altered lives. He and his wife Peggy, a NASA employee, had just returned from a weekend in Moscow, an hour from the training facility. He shared how much he looked forward to hosting people for the launch. “I may be one of the last Americans to launch on a Russian spacecraft, so it will be great to have everyone here,” he said, noting that this is likely his last space mission. Cassidy had no astronaut aspirations while growing up in York, he recalled. “I wanted to play professional basketball or be a referee,” he joked. At York High School, he was a “solid student – wellrounded between academics and sports,” he said. A 1988 graduate, he attended the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I. for a year and went on the the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 1993. For 11 years, he was a member of the U.S. Navy SEALs Team, working as a navigator of underwater vehicles. That concerned his parents more than his 16 years as
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an astronaut, said Janice Cassidy. “He was a SEAL in Afghanistan and was one of the first to go over after 9/11. It was terrifying, because he couldn’t tell us where he was,” she said. “His deployments were long, we worried a lot and were relieved when he applied to NASA.” Cassidy applied while earning his master’s degree at MIT and was selected as an astronaut in 2004. A veteran of two space flights, STS-127 and Expedition 35, he has logged over 30 hours on space walks. An unplanned walk on Expedition 35, with Cassidy and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano replacing a pump controller box, was cut short when cooling water leaked into Parmitano’s helmet. Such crises don’t faze Cassidy, who has been in Russia since March 1 training with his Russian counterparts. “We are constantly in training and well-prepared, with many eyes watching us, so I don’t worry,” he said. Space Station jobs include maintenance, repairs and conducting experiments that various companies and universities propose to be done. Free time includes daily workouts to maintain bone
Notice from the Weekly Sentinel In our best efforts to bring you the “news you want to read”, the Weekly Sentinel is implementing temporary measures which include focusing on our online newspaper while maintaining distribution of street copies. The current COVID-19 crisis increasingly challenges the readers, communities, and business we serve. In an effort to keep all involved safe as well as maintain our core business, the Sentinel will not be providing newspapers in the mail but instead will publish a digital replica online that is available for all on Wednesday night for that Friday’s issue – Same format but without the ink! Visit www.theweeklysentinel.com directly or find us on Facebook (TheWeeklySentinel) for a link posted to each new issue. A tutorial for navigating the online newspaper can be found on page 12. The printed copies can be found distributed throughout our coverage area in the Weekly Sentinel boxes located in front of post offices and select locations (see list on page 27 and under the “circulation” tab our website). This delivery will be made each Thursday morning for readers who cannot access the internet. These changes are temporary but will remain until the crisis allows us to renew our full print production and distribution. We will continue to operate for your advertising and editorial needs, but will be closed to the general public. If you have questions, please call us at (207) 646-8448 or email ads@theweeklysentinel.com.
Thank you and stay healthy, from all of us at the Weekly Sentinel
Flushed Items Causing Sewer Back-Ups AUGUSTA Properly functioning sewer systems are extremely important for the protection of public health and to reduce the spread of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID19). To help keep these systems functioning properly, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is reminding people that the following products should not be flushed: Baby wipes or cleaning wipes, paper towels, tissues, dental floss, tampons and sanitary products, cotton balls and swabs, cat litter, prescription drugs, over-the-counter medi-
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cines, and cigarette butts. Unlike toilet paper, these products do not break down and once flushed they are likely to clog the plumbing in a house, septic system, or public sewer system. When these products make their way into the sewer they clump together, causing very large obstructions in the sewer lines. They get tangled in pump stations requiring repair of equipment and causing backups and discharges of raw sewage into basements of homes and businesses, and into waters of the state. Due to the potential for public works staffing shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, response time to repair clogged sewers could be substantially delayed. Maine DEP and wastewater treatment facilities across the state reminds everyone to make sure they are only flushing toilet paper and properly disposing of all other materials.
COVID-19 Info Check out the pages on
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Find contact information for organizations who can help you stay up-to-date about the Coronavirus.
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