NASA astronauts inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule safely in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday night. SpaceX's Crew-2 mission for NASA capped an exciting six-month stay on the International Space Station.
The Crew Dragon spent over nine hours gently moving through orbit, nearing the dense inner layer of Earth's atmosphere, before safely slicing through the air, deploying parachutes, and splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico past 10:30 p.m. on Monday.
Crew-2 Mission Finally Back
Two NASA astronauts, commander Shane Kimbrough and pilot Megan McArthur, were on board the autonomous spaceship. French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide joined them. The four astronauts were rescued by a squadron of rescue ships that awaited their arrival, CNN said.
Kimbrough, who was the mission's commander, led the Crew-2 mission. McArthur also piloted the mission. Hoshide and Pesquet took turns managing the ISS during their tenure in orbit before turning the keys over to Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
When the astronauts splashed down, a SpaceX flight controller greeted them, according to The Verge. This is the third time SpaceX has successfully flown humans to the International Space Station and safely returned to Earth. Such voyages are part of SpaceX's contract with NASA under the Commercial Crew Program, which enlists commercial businesses to transport NASA astronauts and foreign partners to and from the International Space Station.
In May 2020, SpaceX flew its first two-person crew to the International Space Station as part of a test mission to demonstrate the safety of its Crew Dragon capsule, which is planned to fly on top of the company's Falcon 9 rocket. In November 2020, SpaceX launched the Crew-1 mission, which delivered a four-person crew to the International Space Station for a six-month rotation.
One Crew Dragon Parachute Inflates Slowly During Splashdown
Ars Technica said the spacecraft's return to Earth appeared routine until the vehicle's primary parachutes were released four minutes before splashdown. Three of the four parachutes deployed normally, while the fourth parachute was delayed by a fraction of a second. Despite this, the fourth parachute's inflation rate was normal, and the spacecraft's fall speed was nominal, according to observers on the NASA-SpaceX broadcast.
Kathy Lueders, the director of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, quipped that she is always impressed that she can hold her breath for the last 10 minutes of re-entry (as reported by the Washington Post). "There's a lot of drama right there," Lueders says, "and watching those chutes come out is simply wonderful."
The return looked flawless, she remarked. However, she admitted that people would be curious about that one trailing primary parachute. According to Lueders, the crew will investigate how the chutes were loaded and comprehend the behavior. She stated that they had noticed such a trend before on a previous test. She said it usually occurs when the lines clump together until the aero forces free up and distribute the chutes.
The crew alight from the spacecraft less than an hour later, unharmed, onto a recovery ship. Another Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch from Florida in less than two days, carrying NASA's Crew-3 mission.
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