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Comment by relham | Hacker News Reader

I assume the astronauts and everyone involved is tested daily for COVID-19. I am sure that bringing the virus to the IIS would be disastrous. Anyone has any insights on the measures taken to prevent it? This Verge article[0] appears to describe the preventative steps to be less severe than I'd expect. [0] https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/25/21264868/spacex-nasa-laun...

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Ever since one of the astronauts got sick on one of the Gemini missions the astronauts have undergone quarantines for a period before going up into space.

And still Ken Mattingly was pulled from Apollo 13 3 days before takeoff because of a potential exposure to measles. In the live video, most of the technicians and even Musk are wearing masks, most of them staying at some distance though. I doubt they were all quarantined for the last 2 weeks.

Why should it be desastrous? I hope you do know the odds.

The COVID-19 fatality odd is 0.3%, the Dragon-lost odd probably much higher, maybe at around 5%. The Falcon 9 has over 80 starts now, but this is only the 3nd Dragon 2 start, and one of it failed.

I think the astronauts health makes them much less likely to die from Corona than 0.3% but exposing the current crew of the IIS does not sound like a good idea either.

Fatality rate is one thing, but being in a small space can cause high concentrations of virus and any health complication in space is a big deal.

A catastrophic failure is definitely a risk, but not sure how its magnitude should diminish our caution when it comes to bringing the virus to the space station (by your calc, it lowers the risk only by 5%).

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