NASA TV
11:30pm ET Monday replace: Crew Dragon Endeavour safely splashed down into the Northern Gulf of Mexico on Monday night, simply south of Pensacola, Florida. The water touchdown capped a profitable 199-day mission to the Worldwide Area Station.
The spacecraft’s return to Earth appeared nominal up till 4 minutes earlier than splashdown, when the car’s major parachutes deployed. Three of the 4 parachutes got here out nominally, however inflation of the fourth parachute was delayed by a fraction of a minute. Regardless of this, the commentators on the NASA-SpaceX livestream indicated that the fourth parachute’s inflation fee was regular, and the spacecraft’s descent velocity nominal.
The crew emerged from the spacecraft lower than an hour later, on board a restoration ship, no worse for put on. One other Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA’s Crew-3 mission, is about to launch from Florida in lower than two days. It appears doable that this mission might be delayed as a result of parachute situation noticed Monday evening.
“The workforce will probably be going off and how the loading was on the chute and understanding that conduct,” NASA’s chief of human spaceflight operations, Kathy Lueders, mentioned after the touchdown. “It’s conduct we’ve seen a number of occasions in different exams, and it often occurs when the strains sort of bunch up collectively till the aero forces sort of open up and unfold the chutes. The factor that makes me really feel a bit bit extra assured is that the loading and the deceleration of the spacecraft all appeared nominal.”
NASA and SpaceX will conduct a Launch Readiness Overview on Tuesday forward of the Crew-3 launch, throughout which the parachute situation will definitely be subjected to some prolonged discussions.
Unique publish: NASA and SpaceX plan to return one Crew Dragon spacecraft from orbit on Monday night and launch one other two days later, on Wednesday evening.
The company’s crew flight plans have been in flux since simply earlier than Halloween, when climate considerations after which a “minor medical situation” with one of many 4 astronauts on the Crew-3 mission delayed the rocket’s launch from October 31 into November.
Since that point, NASA and SpaceX, which gives the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 launch system, have been evaluating a bunch of points to be able to decide how finest to launch the Crew-3 mission and return the 4 Crew-2 astronauts from the Worldwide Area Station.
Among the many most important elements is the period of the Crew-2 mission, which launched on April 23, 2021. The Endeavour spacecraft has now been in house for 199 days, which is pretty near the car’s licensed mission size of 210 days.
This weekend, the company determined to push the touchdown of Crew-2 forward of the Crew-3 launch. NASA did so after assessing climate circumstances on the touchdown websites for Endeavour within the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, in addition to launch website climate for Crew-3. It additionally thought of circumstances alongside the ascent “hall” throughout the northern Atlantic Ocean, the place a restoration would should be made within the case of an emergency through the mission’s launch.
On Monday morning, NASA launched its finalized plan for the sequence of occasions. Endeavour, carrying NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide, and European astronaut Thomas Pesquet, will undock from the Worldwide Area Station at 2:05 pm ET (19:05 UTC) on Monday. After undocking, Endeavour will fly across the house station to {photograph} its exterior, partly to offer information on the well being of the getting old station’s exterior.
Following this maneuver, Endeavour will start the method of slowing down and reentering Earth’s orbit. It should splash down off the coast of Florida at 10:33 pm ET Monday (03:33 UTC Tuesday). NASA has not but mentioned whether or not the car will land within the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, as it’s nonetheless evaluating seven doable places for the calmest seas.
Pesquet’s presence on the house station, specifically, will probably be missed. For the final six months, the Frenchman has been a constant supply of grade-A memes. From house.
It appears we is not going to cross paths with our #Crew3 colleagues on the Area Station. Pity, it will have been a pleasure to clarify the finer factors of dwelling up right here 😉
🇫🇷 Quand tu bois ton café dans l’espace // Quand tu te souviens d’où vient l’eau pic.twitter.com/iPvKbvs7cZ
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) November 7, 2021
As soon as Endeavour has landed and the crew safely returned to Kennedy Area Heart, NASA and SpaceX will flip their consideration to the launch of Crew-3. This can require the fast repositioning of sea-based property, together with ships concerned in restoration operations.
Because of this, NASA is now focusing on no sooner than 9:03 pm ET on Wednesday (02:03 UTC Thursday) for the launch of Crew-3 from Kennedy Area Heart. 4 astronauts will fly aboard Crew Dragon Endurance—NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, in addition to European astronaut Matthias Maurer. Climate circumstances look favorable for a Wednesday evening launch from Florida.
Following this timeline, the Crew-3 mission ought to dock with the Worldwide Area Station on Thursday, and the astronauts will spend the subsequent six months in orbit performing quite a lot of science and upkeep operations.
