Highlights From SpaceXs Water Landing of NASAs Crew-2 Mission – The New York Times

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:52 p.m. ET

NASA almost launched a crew of astronauts to space on Halloween. That group, Crew-3, would have completed a formal handoff with the Crew-2 astronauts who returned to Earth on Monday night. But weather conditions and a minor health issue, according to NASA, prevented Crew-3 from leaving on time.

On Wednesday night, Crew-3 could head to orbit. If their mission begins on time, they will lift off at 9:03 p.m. Eastern time, and arrive at the space station the next day.

The four members of Crew-3 are:

Raja Chari, the missions commander, is 44 and will be the fifth astronaut of Indian descent to go to space. Raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and educated in aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was a test pilot and an Air Force colonel who flew combat missions in Iraq before joining NASAs astronaut corps in 2017.

Matthias Maurer, Crew-3s mission specialist, is a German astronaut representing the European Space Agency. Mr. Maurer, 51, joined the European astronaut corps in 2015 after roles as a paramedic, a materials scientist and an engineer.

Kayla Barron, 34 and a mission specialist, also joined NASAs astronaut corps in 2017. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelors degree in systems engineering in 2010, and a year later received her masters degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cambridge. She was among the first group of women to serve on a Navy submarine and was an officer aboard a ballistic missile submarine across three patrols.

Tom Marshburn, 61, who will set off on his third trek to orbit since joining NASAs astronaut corps in 2004. Mr. Marshburn has flown on two space vehicles in the past, serving as a crew member aboard NASAs Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2009 and on Russias Soyuz spacecraft in 2013. He is the missions pilot.

During their mission Crew-3 will play host to a number of space tourists. Russias space agency is scheduled to carry Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, to the space station. Mr. Maezawa and a producer who is accompanying him, Yozo Hirano, would be Russias second pair of amateur astronauts this year, after a film crew that made the trip in September.

Then early in 2022, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will carry a trio of space tourists to the space station. The trip was booked by Axiom Space, a private company with ambitions of building its own private space station. The three astronauts paid $55 million each for their trips, and will be accompanied by Michael Lpez-Alegra, a NASA veteran who works for Axiom.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:36 p.m. ET

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The crew will board a helicopter and fly ashore to Florida, where a NASA jet awaits to fly them to the Johnson Space Center, the agencys astronaut headquarters in Houston.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:33 p.m. ET

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The four astronauts, waving and giving thumbs up, were carried out of the spacecraft by medical teams and wheeled away in stretchers. Their legs will need to adjust to Earths gravity after spending 199 days in microgravity.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:20 p.m. ET

The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsules have been the heart of SpaceXs business for years. But the company is devoting more and more of its energies to Starship, a next-generation, fully reusable spacecraft. Starship is also central to the dream of Elon Musk, the companys founder, of one day ferrying humans to Mars.

Mr. Musk has indicated Starship would be ready to make its first flight to orbit as soon as this month, pending completion of a protracted regulatory review of the companys Starship launch facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. Some neighbors of the site, which is in the vicinity of the city of Brownsville, have objected to the companys growing economic and environmental footprint, while others have welcomed SpaceX for presenting job prospects to the community.

Prototypes of Starship have been test-launched with no passengers aboard several times in South Texas to roughly six-mile altitudes. All except its most recent test in May ended in explosions. But during the May flight, the vehicle succeeded in landing vertically on a concrete slab.

SpaceX then pivoted to a new phase of Starship development, making major investments in launch infrastructure to support Starships leap to orbit. To do that, the company will for the first time use its Super Heavy booster, the reusable first half of the Starship system that lifts the second half into space before returning back to land.

Once it separates from the booster, the Starship vehicle will attempt to reach orbit and make a single trip around Earth before re-entering the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean for a splashdown off the coast of Hawaii, according to regulatory documents SpaceX filed earlier this year. Humans will not be on board.

But no matter how ready SpaceX is for its orbital mission, the Federal Aviation Administration must first complete an environmental assessment of the launch facilities before it will issue a license for the Starship flight. The companys Boca Chica campus was subjected to a similar review nearly a decade ago, but the sites significant upgrades prompted the F.A.A. to initiate a new review process last year to re-examine environmental impacts.

Drawing on local wildlife agencies and public comments from local residents, the review is intended to assess the sites effects on its surroundings. The launch facilities sit in the middle of a nature preserve and just outside a small village of homes that Mr. Musk has sought to buy out. Though its unclear exactly when the review will be completed, it could continue through the end of 2021.

SpaceX won a $3 billion NASA contract in April to use Starship for the agencys first two missions to the moon within the next five years, including one with American astronauts on board. That mission would mark the first crewed moon landing since 1972, the year of NASAs final Apollo mission.

Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder and former chief executive of Amazon, filed two legal challenges to NASAs SpaceX contract that delayed the agencys work on Starship by six months. A judge on Thursday ruled against Blue Origin and allowed NASA to proceed with the contract. The agency is expected to redraw the moon programs timeline in an update on Tuesday.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:19 p.m. ET

Michael Roston

This was the first glimpse at the astronauts inside the capsule.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:16 p.m. ET

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About 40 minutes after splashing down, recovery personnel pried open Crew Dragons side hatch, giving astronauts their first breath of fresh air in over six months.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:05 p.m. ET

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The capsule was guided toward SpaceXs GO Searcher recovery ship and hoisted onto its deck using cables and a crane.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:02 p.m. ET

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NASA shared another shot of that cometary reentry of the Crew Dragon Endeavour.

Nov. 8, 2021, 11:00 p.m. ET

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The astronauts are sitting tight inside Crew Dragon while recovery teams inspect the capsule outside. Megan McArthur is talking to NASAs astronaut headquarters in Houston on a satellite phone.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:53 p.m. ET

Now that the Crew Dragon has splashed down in the waters off Floridas coast, the astronauts will sit tight in the capsule while SpaceX and NASA recovery teams in fast boats race to their location. A member of those teams will latch a hook to the top of the spacecraft.

A larger SpaceX ship named GO Searcher will be close behind. It will use a crane to hoist the capsule out of the water and onto its rear deck, fitting it snugly onto a raised pad the Dragon nest to keep Crew Dragon steady as the vessel bobs in the ocean.

Safely out of the water, recovery teams will then open the hatch, giving the four astronauts their first breath of fresh air in roughly 200 days. Medical teams aboard the ship will help the astronauts out of the capsule one by one, using stretchers if necessary to keep them off their feet as they adjust to Earths gravity.

Long-term trips in space can reduce muscle mass and throw off an astronauts sense of balance, requiring a physical recovery process upon returning to Earth.

The Crew-2 astronauts will be flown in a helicopter back to land and board a NASA plane bound for the agencys Johnson Space Center, its astronaut headquarters in Houston, where theyll spend a few days undergoing medical checks. For missions as long as six months, NASA research indicates it can take about three days for astronauts to recover their balance and gait.

Astronauts who make shorter visits to space dont seem to have as much trouble. In September, the four private passengers who spent three days in orbit on the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission sauntered freely out of the capsule with little difficulty.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:40 p.m. ET

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The crew is right where theyre supposed to be, right on time, said Gary Jordan, a NASA spokesman, describing wonderfully smooth waters as astronauts await recovery.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:39 p.m. ET

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SpaceXs main recovery ship, GO Searcher, is standing by as recovery teams latch cables onto Crew Dragon that will be used to hoist the capsule onto the ship's deck.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:38 p.m. ET

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The splashdown is happening in darkness a few dozen miles off the coast of Pensacola, Fla. SpaceX mission control is expected to give the go-ahead to recovery teams to approach the capsule and begin recovery.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:36 p.m. ET

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Its great to be back to planet Earth, Shane Kimbrough, Crew-2 commander, told mission control from inside the capsule just after plunking in calm waters.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:35 p.m. ET

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Recovery personnel will flock to the capsule, including a person on a jet ski who will climb aboard the capsules exterior to attach a hook.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:33 p.m. ET

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Crew Dragon has splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:32 p.m. ET

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The first two chutes have been thrown out and the remaining four have deployed. Theyll start slowing the capsule from 120 miles per hour to 15 at splashdwon.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:31 p.m. ET

Michael Roston

Thats not a comet, thats the Crew Dragon Endeavour in a burst of heat as it heads toward the sea.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:29 p.m. ET

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The capsule just deployed a pair of chutes to slow itself down from 350 miles per hour to about 120. Those will soon be ditched for another set of four larger parachutes.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:29 p.m. ET

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Ground control regained communication with Crew Dragon as it emerged from its blazing, seven-minute atmospheric reentry process

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:25 p.m. ET

Michael Roston

Had the astronauts come home on time, they may not have seen some of these light shows.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:24 p.m. ET

Michael Roston

Thomas Pesquet called it the strongest auroras of the entire mission.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:22 p.m. ET

Michael Roston

While we wait for the astronauts to regain their radio connection with the ground, lets look back at some imagery they shared during their final days on the space station. There was heightened activity on the sun recently, which led to amazing aurorae in Earths atmosphere. This one was captured by Shane Kimbrough, Crew-2s commander.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:21 p.m. ET

Joey Roulette

Starting now for about seven minutes, mission controls communication with the crew will cease as Crew Dragon is scorched by atmospheric friction, the most intense leg of its return. That slows the capsules speed of more than 10,000 miles per hour to about 350.

Nov. 8, 2021, 10:15 p.m. ET

Three crews of astronauts have splashed down off Floridas coasts in SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule since the vehicle started its trips to space. The crew has been safe after each return.

But that doesnt mean water landings are easy.

Returning from the free-fall environment of orbit to the normal forces of gravity on Earth is often disorienting for astronauts. A water landing adds the possibility of seasickness.

During a news conference in 2020, Doug Hurley, who flew NASAs first journey in the Crew Dragon capsule, said he had read some of the reports by the Skylab astronauts who completed water landings in the 1970s.

There was some challenges post splashdown, he said. Folks didnt feel well, and you know, that is the way it is with a water landing, even if youre not deconditioned like were going to be.

Mr. Hurley acknowledged that vomiting would not be unexpected.

There are bags if you need them, and well have those handy, he said. Well probably have some towels handy as well. And you know, if that needs to happen, it certainly wouldnt be the first time that thats happened in a space vehicle.

But not long after the splash down, he asked SpaceXs mission controllers to tell flight surgeons monitoring their health that, were doing pretty good so far.

The crew will also be returning after dark on Monday. The last NASA astronaut crew also splashed down in May in the dark, and it was the first night water landing by astronauts since 1968.

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Highlights From SpaceXs Water Landing of NASAs Crew-2 Mission - The New York Times