Four Astronauts On Mission Crew 2 Return To Earth On SpaceX Crew Dragon Rockets

Four Astronauts ready to return to Earth. (photo: twitter @NASA)

JAKARTA - Four astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) last April, for a long-term science mission, began their return journey to Earth. Monday, November 8, their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule separated from the orbiting laboratory for its return flight.

The Crew Dragon, nicknamed Endeavor, was released from the space station as planned shortly after 2 p.m. EST (0200 GMT Tuesday) in a process that was broadcast live by a NASA webcast, with video showing the astronauts strapped into the cabin wearing helmeted suits. their white.

This is what teamwork sounds like. As @SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavor begins its flyaround of the @Space_Station, @Astro_Sabot shares words of farewell for his departing Crew-2 colleagues: pic.twitter.com/nBEAA6aRVa

— NASA (@NASA) November 8, 2021

Operating independently, the spacecraft was previously programmed to initiate its departure by flying around the space station for 90 minutes, allowing the crew to take a series of survey photos of the orbiting outpost, circling the globe at an altitude of about 250 miles (400 km) from Earth. The rocket booster will then fire to send the spacecraft on its final trajectory to return to Earth.

If all goes well, Endeavor is scheduled to parachute into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at around 10:30 p.m. EST on Monday (10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday), following a total return flight time of eight hours, including re-entry through Earth's atmosphere.

That's a lap! @SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavor has completed its flyaround of the @Space_Station and is in a series of departure burns.Visit https://t.co/z1RgZwQkWS for continuous coverage. We'll pick up final splashdown coverage live on Twitter ~9:30pm ET (02:30 UTC): pic.twitter.com/tDsx4egvlp

— NASA (@NASA) November 8, 2021

The frictional heat generated as the capsule tumbles through the atmosphere typically sends the temperature around the outside of the vehicle soaring up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). The capsule and its crew will be picked up at sea by a special recovery team manning the Gulf.

The crew of the plane consisted of two NASA astronauts - mission commander Shane Kimbrough (54), and pilot Megan McArthur (50) along with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide (52), and fellow mission specialist Thomas Pesquet (43), a French engineer with the Space Agency. Europe.

They were previously flown into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that took off on April 23 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

They are the third crew to be launched into orbit under NASA's public-private partnership with SpaceX, the rocket company formed in 2002 by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also founded electric car maker Tesla Inc.

The return team was designated "Crew 2" because it marks the second operational space station team NASA has launched aboard a SpaceX capsule since resuming human spaceflight from American soil last year, following a nine-year hiatus at the end of the US space shuttle program in 2017. 2011.

The replacement team, "Crew 3," was originally scheduled to fly to the space station in late October. However, the launch has been delayed due to unspecified weather and medical issues involving one of the four crew members.

One quirk that the returning Crew 2 faced was a leaking pipe above the capsule that damaged the spacecraft's toilet, meaning astronauts would have to pee in their spacesuit underwear if nature were to experience it during the flight home, according to NASA.