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Almost two months have passed since a Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying two astronauts took off from the face of the Earth and launched NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into orbit. Now it’s time to go home.
So far, this test flight of the SpaceX-built crew spacecraft has gone almost perfectly since launching on May 30. Named Effort Because of its crew, the spacecraft flew smoothly on its way to the International Space Station, where it docked without incident. For the past two months, its solar panels have been doing well. And while in orbit, Hurley and Behnken, who conducted four spacewalks to help install new batteries outside the station, contributed to NASA’s mission.
Now, NASA would like the crew to return home and complete the final and key objective of the test flight, safely splashing in the ocean. Nominally, this is scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, August 2.
A final target date and time will be selected on Wednesday, during a “Return Flight Readiness Review,” which will consider both the spacecraft’s health and the weather. There are seven potential Dragon splash zones around the state of Florida, both in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Atlantic Ocean. Climate criteria include winds of less than 16.5 km / hour, calm seas and a low probability of rain.
A decision will be made on where to splash approximately six hours before undocking, but a final decision on whether to undock cannot really be made until the last few minutes before departure. Depending on the chosen splash location, it will take six to 30 hours for the crew to return to Earth after decoupling.
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Crew Dragon will perform two very short burns to separate himself from the station, and then there will be four slightly longer burns to move Effort further and start the journey home. During this time, NASA and SpaceX will continue to monitor the weather at the location of the splashes, and if conditions deteriorate, a decision will be made to wait 24 to 48 hours for another landing attempt.
When the final decision is made to commit to a landing, the Dragon capsule will drop its trunk and perform an exorbitant burn. During the re-entry process, Dragon will be subject to temperatures up to 1,950 ° C, relying on its front heat shield to absorb these extreme conditions.
Once in the lower atmosphere, the capsule drogue parachute will deploy about 5.5 km above the planet’s surface, followed by the main parachutes at an altitude of about 2 km. After splashing around, Hurley and Benhken will stay inside Dragon for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the sea states, before Go Searcher and the Go navigator The recovery ship elevates the spacecraft to its main deck.
After an initial check on the ship, in most scenarios, the crew will board a helicopter to fly to Cape Canaveral. On the ground, they will board a NASA plane that will take them to the Ellington field near their homes in Houston. And then finally they’ll end up flying for a while.
