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NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps was supposed to be in space right now, as the first African-American crew member living on the International Space Station. But instead she's on the ground doing all of the things astronauts do when they're not in space—training, monitoring programs, working as a capcom in Mission Control, and more.
Since being pulled from her flight in January, a mission that launched about two weeks ago for a six-month tour on the space station, Epps has remained quiet in public. NASA did not specify the reasons for her removal from Expedition 56 to the space station, saying only that, "These decisions are personnel matters for which NASA doesn’t provide information."
However, Epps did finally speak publicly this week, appearing at the Tech Open Air technology festival in Berlin on June 21, where she was interviewed by journalist Megan Gannon. The website CollectSPACE provided a transcript of the discussion.
Asked why she was taken off the Expedition 56 flight, Epps said she could not go into great detail. “I can't speculate in this forum why that was done, but it was a decision of my management and it is something that we're going to try to work through,” she said. However, Epps noted that she passed all of her NASA training, her Russian training, as well as exams for operating European and Japanese modules on the space station.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Monday June 25 2018, @07:15AM (10 children)
The reasons are known to the author of the TFA, but he refuses to disclose them. From the comments, including the other comments the author quoted (his text in bold):
I'm doubtful that the author would feel the need to hold back if racism was a factor.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 25 2018, @08:15AM
Exactly.
Possible exception is if it was Racism on HER part, which seems rather unlikely. But then I've seen stuff slosh out of people's mouth after 4 shots of vodka that I would never have believed.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 25 2018, @11:00AM
Racism is never a stated factor, that would be illegal.
There are plenty of "soft" factors that can be played up. We don't really need to examine a single instance to determine if there is a racial bias in the actual flying astronaut program, the statistical sample is large enough to speak for itself.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Alphatool on Monday June 25 2018, @12:30PM (2 children)
He would if he thought it would compromise Epps' chance of flying again. Not only would it be morally wrong to destroy a person's career just for a relatively minor story, it would mean that nobody would ever talk to him again. Eric Berger has built a great reputation for disclosing sensitive information about NASA without compromising sources and the trust he's built up over many years would be destroyed if he did something to stop an astronaut from flying. That's two pretty solid reasons to hold back.
Moving on to unsubstantiated rumors, a friend of a friend (with good contacts and no reason to lie, but no hard evidence either) told me that the official reason was that "the FOD thought there would be personality conflicts if she went on the mission". He also said that this decision was at the sole discretion of the FOD and no details were given beyond this, as in "it's my call and I don't have to explain why I made it". Does this stack up? To me it makes more sense that something scummy is happening than a person being an astronaut for almost a decade without their personality being suitable, but without actual information it's all just speculation.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 25 2018, @06:24PM (1 child)
Not even remotely. No such think as "its my call" in the real world of public employment. FOD is not GOD, and doesn't get to make arbitrary decisions.
.
That said, the fact that the announcement was made while she was training in Russia says this came from something or some event in Russia. Maybe she's just too assertive or too self confident for some of the Russian male counterparts. (Russian officials are telling Russian women not to sleep with non-white guests attending world cup games. It seems that contrary to popular SJW opinion the US doesn't have the racism market cornered.)
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday June 25 2018, @06:44PM
Yeah but thats why drumphf loves the !!!RUSSIANS!!! checkmate racist
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @12:58PM (1 child)
But it's currently sitting at +4 insightful in soylent worldview.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 25 2018, @04:01PM
#NotAnymore
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(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Monday June 25 2018, @06:16PM (1 child)
Disagree, no matter what was "the factor". People often "hold back" on a relationship-risking action, thinking that there's still a chance things will go right, because they don't know (or can't accept) that the other side (management, relationship, whatever) has already made up its mind.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 25 2018, @06:19PM
A lot of people have cried "racism" or even accused the Trump administration of bumping this astronaut. The burden of proof is on them.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 25 2018, @09:11PM
He would if he was one of those arstechnica SJW goons. Oh, look, he is! One of them is never going to write anything that would make a black look bad. It might hurt someone's precious feelings. (No, I don't care if the astronaut is black, but arstech does!)
As a former regular poster on arstech, long ago, it is sad to see how deep into the lunacy bin that site has gone.