US astronauts pack up for uncommon splashdown in SpaceX capsule
Two U.S. astronauts about to make the primary splashdown return in 45 years stated Friday they’re going to have seasick luggage prepared to make use of if wanted.
SpaceX and NASA plan to carry Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken again Sunday afternoon within the firm’s Dragon capsule, aiming for the Gulf of Mexico simply off the Florida Panhandle. Flight controllers are protecting shut watch on Hurricane Isaias, anticipated to stay to Florida’s east coast.
Hurley stated if he and Behnken get sick whereas bobbing within the waves awaiting restoration, it will not be the primary time for a crew. Astronauts returning within the early 1970s from Skylab, NASA’s first house station, didn’t really feel nicely following splashdown, Hurley famous.
Feeling sick “is the way in which it’s with a water touchdown,” he stated in the course of the crew’s last information convention from the Worldwide Area Station.
This will probably be SpaceX’s first splashdown with astronauts on board, ending a two-month take a look at flight that started Might 30 at NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle—the primary launch of a crew from the U.S. in almost a decade. The capsule has been docked on the house station since Might 31, permitting Hurley and Behnken to chip in with spacewalks and experiments.
Hurley stated the emergency and different gear has checked out nicely aboard Dragon, dubbed Endeavour. Launch and rendezvous went flawlessly, “so we anticipate nothing totally different for the splashdown,” he stated.
Their departure leaves three on board, one American and two Russians.
The Dragon capsule will probably be within the water for about an hour earlier than it is hauled by crane onto a SpaceX restoration ship. It is going to be one other hour earlier than the hatch is opened and the astronauts emerge. Flight surgeons will probably be among the many dozens of the restoration group members.
The plan is for the Dragon to undock from the house station on Saturday, a day earlier than splashdown. The prime goal is off the coast of Panama Metropolis, midway between Tallahassee and Pensacola.
“We cannot depart the house station with out some good touchdown alternatives in entrance of us, good splashdown climate,” Behnken informed reporters. “We may keep up right here longer. There’s extra chow and I do know the house station program’s bought extra work that we will do.”
Like launch, the journey again will probably be basically automated, with the crew and flight controllers intervening provided that obligatory.
Behnken has an additional motive to carry this Dragon again in fine condition. Following refurbishment, the capsule will fly once more subsequent spring with a crew of 4—together with his spouse, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur. SpaceX’s subsequent astronaut flight is focused for the tip of September.
Behnken stated even earlier than his launch, they’d an inkling she can be assigned to a SpaceX flight. NASA introduced the information this week.
“And naturally, I will have a variety of ideas for her,” he stated.
Hurley is married to lately retired NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg.
NASA turned to SpaceX and Boeing for U.S.-based crew transport after the house shuttles retired in 2011. Russian rockets had been the one means for astronauts to get to the house station till SpaceX grew to become the primary non-public firm to launch people into orbit two months in the past. Boeing’s first crew flight is not anticipated till subsequent yr.
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