SpaceX Tuesday...

[Beati Dogu]

The Crew Dragon's booster came back in this morning, after they waited off the coast for daylight.

It's slid a little to the side after landing in the choppy seas, before they could get on board and anchor it down.

[AshVX220]

From the video it looked like it came down quite "off-target" anyway, so maybe it hasn't slid (unless of course they've stated it slid).

[Beati Dogu]

Can’t find it now but I read that it been sliding around the deck a little.

Anyway, they haven't wasted any time on converting Pad 39A for its next launch - Falcon Heavy. This one will have 3 new Block 5 boosters, so will be more more powerful than the test rocket last year.

[AshVX220]

Can't wait to see that, I hope they manage to land all the first stages this time.

[RobDickinson]

AshVX220 said:

Can't wait to see that, I hope they manage to land all the first stages this time.

They really need to, it's launching again in June.

[Elderly]

Beati Dogu said:

Dragon is going to be there for then next 5 days (depending on sea conditions in the Atlantic for splashdown & recovery).

When is it scheduled to detach from the ISS?

[Eric Mc]

Tomorrow - but it does depend on the weather and sea state at the proposed Atlantic Ocean splashdown point.

[Beati Dogu]

Yes, they’ve already closed the hatches and it’s scheduled to depart at 7.30 am UK time.

It’ll carefully move away for the next 5 hours or so. The deorbit burn takes another 15 mins and then it’ll splash down about 45 minutes later. So roughly 1.30 pm here.

It will re-enter over the Carolinas and ditch in the sea off the coast of Florida, where a recovery boat should be waiting. Elon Musk was more worried about the re-entry than anything, so he’ll be sweating bullets tomorrow.

[annodomini2]

Beati Dogu said:

... Elon Musk was more worried about the re-entry than anything, so he’ll be sweating bullets tomorrow.

The Crew dragon has a different heat shield design due to the thrusters.

There's apparently a small risk of it spinning due to the cut outs for the thrusters

[Beati Dogu]

Here's the splashdown area (purple rectangle - capsule approaches from the top left):



The orange shape was for the landing of the booster.


Recovery ships GO Navigator and GO Searcher will be on station by then.

As well as being able to hoist the capsule out of the water, GO Searcher now has a helipad and medical facilities for any astronauts that may come back injured or sick in future.

https://www.spacexfleet.com/go-searcher

[Elderly]

Beati Dogu said:

Yes, they’ve already closed the hatches and it’s scheduled to depart at 7.30 am UK time.

It’ll carefully move away for the next 5 hours or so. The deorbit burn takes another 15 mins and then it’ll splash down about 45 minutes later. So roughly 1.30 pm here.

Thanks - I'll be watching, I wonder what will be seen?

Edited by Elderly on Friday 8th March 07:18

[Eric Mc]

Safely undocked and gradually moving away from the ISS.

[Elderly]

A great watch - looking forward to seeing the de-orbit burn at 12.30 our time.

[Eric Mc]

Elderly said:

A great watch - looking forward to seeing the de-orbit burn at 12.30 our time.

Will it be within camera range by then?

[Toaster]

Elderly said:

Beati Dogu said:

Yes, they’ve already closed the hatches and it’s scheduled to depart at 7.30 am UK time.

It’ll carefully move away for the next 5 hours or so. The deorbit burn takes another 15 mins and then it’ll splash down about 45 minutes later. So roughly 1.30 pm here.

Thanks - I'll be watching, I wonder what will be seen?

Edited by Elderly on Friday 8th March 07:18

A repeat of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo re-entries oh how 1960's

But good to see America has an updated capsule and resumed the capability to fly to the space station and back.

[funkyrobot]

15 mins to go.

[MartG]

View from the hatch window of the exhaust from the four Draco thrusters carrying out the 15 min deorbit burn



View from the same camera as the nosecone closes over the hatch after the deorbit burn was completed

[funkyrobot]

Pic from an aeroplane monitoring the capsule:

[funkyrobot]

[funkyrobot]