The Crew Dragon Endeavor of SpaceX that carries the four astronauts of the space firm's Crew-2 mission is making a journey, returning to Earth for a planned splashdown this evening off the coast of Florida.
This, Space.com reported, is SpaceX's second long-running astronaut mission for NASA, and it is close to its end after a Crew Dragon capsule undocked earlier today from the International Space Station.
The crew, comprising Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur from NASA; Thomas Pesquet, a European Space Agency astronaut; and Akihiko Hoshide, a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut, is closing a six-month mission to the ISS.
Early today, the doorways between Endeavor and the station closed on time at 12:13 pm. The astronauts undocked from the ISS as planned at 2:05 pm; then, their Dragon spacecraft carried out a series of short burns to back far from the space station.
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The rocket is being prepared for the Crew-3 mission with the four astronauts to the International Space Station.
Departing Astronauts
They are set to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, off Florida's coast of Pensacola, at 10:33 pm. This event can be viewed live on the Space.com homepage via NASA TV.
According to Mark Vande Hei, a NASA astronaut, it has been great to be part of the team. He who stayed aboard the station told the Crew-2 astronauts when they departed, "Get home safely."
Meanwhile, Kimbrough radioed back, they learned a lot from they learned about from the said astronauts, and they know that they are going to treat Crew-3 pretty well. The NASA astronaut also told the departing astronauts to "take care and fly safely."
The Dragon departure earlier today was moved ahead of the expected launch of Crew-3 because of weather conditions and minor medical problems concerning one of the four crew members who will take the next six-month mission in orbit.
The Crew-2 Flight
After the SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts' successful undocking, they carried out a fly-around maneuver, the first of its kind since the shuttle generation.
During this particular maneuver, which is slated to take one hour and a half, the crew will capture the space station's exterior images.
The resulting images will allow teams to investigate areas of the space station that are not typically in view of the cameras of the orbital outposts. More so, the maneuver will test the navigation sensors of the Dragon, as well.
As earlier mentioned, the four Crew-2 astronauts spent six months in space as part of the second long-running crewed flight, following the launch in April on top of a Falcon 9 rocket.
The said flight was supposed to be succeeded by SpaceX's third astronaut Crew-3 mission, which was initially slated for launch on October 31.
The Crew-3 Mission
Dubbed as "Endurance," the Crew-3 Dragon is still waiting for launch from the ground. A series of deferrals prompted NASA to take the Crew-2 astronauts home before it sends up the replacements.
NASA's Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kyla Barron, and Germany's Matthias Maurer of NASA, the Crew-3 astronauts, are set to take off to the space station on November 10 if everything goes out as planned. Liftoff is slated for 9:03 pm EST.
The Crew-3 astronauts of SpaceX arrived in Florida on October 26. They spent the next few days running through the last launch procedures ahead of climbing into their Dragon.
Poor weather conditions along the rocket's planned flight path and a minor medical problem with a crewmember have deferred the takeoff from its October 31 target.
Related information about the closing of the Crew-2 Mission of SpaceX is shown on the company's YouTube video below:
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