Crew-2 Mission | Return

endeavor spacex is go for the orbit entry and landing chapter is there for the orbit entry and landing good news [Music] and so again we are providing continuous coverage of the crew to return we just heard the crew announce we are go for deorbit entry and landing the uh spacex or not spacex uh the crew 2 astronauts confirmed that and so again marching towards the 7 33 p.m pacific time splashdown 10 33 p.m eastern time things continue to go great here gary so yeah that's a significant milestone andy because what it means is we are now really the teams are ready to commit to the next couple of dynamic activities a lot is going to happen once we get past 6 p.m pacific time uh 609 pm pacific we're looking at the departure phase burn right now we're pretty much co-elliptic with the international space station that phase burn will turn us into a phasing that points us right towards the prime landing site which we just heard that we're go for which is off the coast of pensacola florida that's a 42 second burn and it puts us really in line with that it's not too long after that where we'll see the dragon slew for claw separation and trunk separation the trunk will go off into the distance and burn up in the atmosphere in the meantime the the dragon will reorient itself putting the uh heat shield right towards the uh atmosphere of the earth where it will do the bulk of the work of slowing the vehicle down from 17 500 miles per hour to 350 miles per hour that of course in order to get to that point we need to conduct a 16 and a half minute deorbit burn and that really is what commits us to landing off the coast of pensacola florida even at this point the teams could even after the phasing burn look for other opportunities but with that go it means that we are very likely going to head towards that deorbit burn here coming up but not too long from now yeah and uh we heard um about 30 minutes ago that weather sea states also looked great and that definitely was taken into account before given the go so um yeah the astronauts i'm sure are ready to go home and on screen right now we have a view of them looking at their display monitors again they have access to a lot of information of the vehicle that they can use and refer to for re-entry so you see the display is looking at the ground track they have a full map of the earth and they're looking at their relative position uh as they orbit the earth which is at this time still co-elliptic with the international space station we'll be getting to that point very shortly where we uh line up with the prime landing site uh flanking the on each of the screens that were on both of the sides uh each respective of the commander and the pilot uh were was an outlay of where the draco thrusters were so they'll they are able to see the draco thrusters firing making sure that they're doing their job uh with that 42 second burn that's coming up here uh in just about 12 minutes after the departure phasing burn we have one more burn left you mentioned it it's the 16 minutes deorbit burn and then dragon once it enters the earth's atmosphere there's going to be a communication blackout period for about seven minutes that that what that means is um the crew and dragon cannot communicate to the ground and the ground cannot communicate to dragon there is some interference from the plasma that's built up around the exterior of dragon but at this point the dragon vehicle itself is really piloting itself it knows exactly where it's at and knows exactly where it wants to go so it will continue to steer the crew towards the primary landing site while we again go through that period of high plasma and get to the other side and we can get calms up again after we have an acquisition of signal on the other side of that entry uh we'll be able to hear some of the first words from the crew as they are inside the atmosphere of planet earth the depart the deployment of parachutes will happen relatively quickly uh what's scheduled right now is the drogue parachutes to deploy uh that will take a roughly eight seconds and then about 40 seconds after that the drogue parachutes will be released and the four main parachutes will be deployed that's that sequence slows the vehicle down from roughly 350 miles per hour to about 15 miles per hour nice and gentle so the crew when they land in the ocean is a nice soft landing and this here is the view of mission control hawthorne teams here are continuing to support the crew 2 return again a few minutes away from that departure phasing burn the teams here uh handed over to a new shift there was a shift of flight controllers that looked over the undocking phase as well as the fly around and the exit of the approach ellipsoid all of which was under joint operations with the teams over in mission control houston uh and then in between that they hand it over to a new shift these flight controllers are overseeing the phase of flight that we're in right now which is coming up to be uh like as we're saying andy is is a very critical time with the phase burn uh we're going to be separating the dragon trunk uh committing to a de-orbit burn and landing off the coast of florida again we heard a go for uh deorbit burn entry and landing that means that the crew that the vehicle is healthy the crew is prepared the recovery teams are in position and the weather out in pensacola florida is cooperating this is one of the reasons why we are doing this indirect handover is for this moment the crew 2 astronauts undocked before the crew 3 astronauts launched to the international space station primarily because the weather that was predicted for tonight's landing was predicted to be very very favorable and we're hearing reports that that is true that the sea states are very calm the wind speeds are also calm not exceeding five knots uh the recovery teams are already out there and uh we're aiming for our prime splashdown location off of the coast of pensacola florida yeah the um core described it as lake like which is about the best thing you can hear if you're an astronaut coming home um there are a couple things that they look at so the wave height is important as well as the period of the waves or uh how often the the waves are crashing so again green on all accounts really in terms of sea state and weather which is great great and excellent news so we're just about eight minutes away from that departure phase burn it's not too long of a burn about 42 seconds on screen right now is the view inside the cabin uh the arm or the hand at the middle of your screen that is uh tomate's hand of the european space agency you can see that on his uh i believe that's his left thigh there's a tablet that is where all of their procedures and instructions and manuals that they can refer to it's all housed there and so we heard the core and the crew talking to each other about certain procedures and steps uh they're referring to that inside their tablets to make sure that again all the things that need to be done and all of the [Music] procedures that need to be accounted for they're all done uh when they need to this view is spectacular right now just beyond where you see commander sheen kimbrough and pilot megan mcarthur just beyond uh the pilot you can see two patches that are two stickers that are on the walls of the inside of the dragon cabin that is the patches for the demo two mission as well as the crew ii mission this vehicle being a reflown vehicle it flew bob and doug just a year and a half ago as part of the demo two mission that was the first mission uh inside dragon with crew aboard just the two astronauts were part of that test mission stayed on board for roughly two months before returning uh verifying that endeavor and and the operations needed for crews returning to uh space from american soil was go and here we are uh about to return uh crew from the international space station aboard crew dragon endeavor for the second time and here's a great picture uh we aren't able to really see uh their faces uh with the views that we currently have but from left to right tomorrow of the european space agency we have he is the mission specialist um megan macarthur who is the pilot uh shane kimbrough the commander of the mission and then akihiko hoshide who is also another mission specialist these are the four members that are currently on the spacecraft that are that is returning home in just a few hours in the same order that they're sitting you can see from left to right the order is the same uh flanking both sides of the middle is toma pesque on the left you can see on the bottom left corner of your screen he's mission specialist for this mission he also commanded the international space station for just a little bit at the beginning of expedition 66. right before departing uh the international space station he handed over command of the international space station to roscosmos cosmonaut anton shkaplerov shkaplerov will remain the commander of the international space station for quite some time uh before he departs and expedition 67 begins so that will be about five or six months from now before that uh crew ms-19 departs from the international space station shkaplerov being commander for that entire period uh right before shkaplerov departs he'll hand over command of station to nasa astronaut tom marshburn who is scheduled to launch from pad 39a here in just about two days we were getting very lucky with some of those views from inside dragon uh we'll see them periodically as we are able to see them uh as the dragon orbits the earth it catches various ground stations that are able to provide high bandwidth communications and provide that in-cabin video you can see the crew really the dragon is flying itself so they are just monitoring they are looking at the different thrusters they're looking at their trajectory they're looking at the time to make because each of these maneuvers are executed at very precise periods about four minutes from now is when we're anticipated to execute the departure phase burn so they're just standing by waiting for that period you can see the reason that they're suited up is to give plenty of margin plenty of space between the time that they suited up and some of the more dynamic phases of flight suits are not required for the entire journey from the international space station down to planet earth in fact we even saw how they had a period where they doffed or took off their suits they had a little bit of time to have a crew meal they had some fluid loading really just drinking a lot of water in preparation for the 4gs that they're about to experience uh before they had to put their suits back on again the suits are required for primarily two different phases of flights first is undocking and the second being the re-entry phase gary we are less than an hour and a half away the crew [Music] to get home from the international space station it's going to take about eight hours uh after they undock there was a a fly around of the international space station did a full 360 um sort of uh fly around taking pictures of the international space station before going through all of the departure uh burns to uh slowly move the dragon vehicle away from the international space station and get it closer and closer to earth so they are well into their journey and um towards the end here and we're just under 90 minutes that's right so two minutes to go let's do a quick recap of everything we've seen so far they undocked right at time at a right on time at 05 a.m pacific standard time backing away to about 220 meters and then as you said andy performed a full fly around of the international space station it was tomma pesquet's job to take a digital camera point it towards the international space station and photograph the exterior this was to allow photographs and of visuals of the outside that are not normally seen we have cameras on the outside of the station the robotic arm is able to survey some areas of the station but it can't quite get everything so this was the first um exterior survey that we've had since 2018 when the soyuz did a fly around after that we executed a series of departure burns there were five that were planned uh departure burns uh zero one two and three as well as the departure phase burn which is coming up here in about a minute and a half uh there was another burn that we introduced called the uh out of plane burn uh this was also a prop dump burn so it served a couple of purposes one uh using the forward bulkhead dracos fired for about three minutes uh and adjusted the course of the international space station also dumped a lot of fuel which is essential to minimize the weight uh as we enter into the reentry phase of flight so we just saw the crew they are seated and buckled in into their seats uh getting ready for again the uh departure phasing burn it's going to line us up uh to uh our primary landing site which again is off the coast of pensacola florida this is going to last about 40 seconds and again its job is to to sort of point us get us out of the plane and direct us to where we need to be for the final burn which is the deorbit burn 16 minute burn that's going to take dragon out of orbit and start to get it to re-enter the earth's atmosphere so on screen right now um if you look on the very right hand side of the screen oh now the left hand side of the screen there is a there is a hatch there that is the side hatch that the crew will be egressing out of once the dragon capsule is recovered out of the water hoisted onto the recovery vessel uh we'll be opening that side hatch and um that is where the the crew will egress from so there's uh on screen right now underneath the um display panels there are some buttons there are also some buttons on the armrests of the chairs uh some important features um they get dedicated their own buttons things like being able to cut the main parachute uh after we deploy them uh communications get their own button as well and so that is just sort of part of the design of the interfaces that the crew gets to use as part of the dragon vehicle this way it's right there they don't have to pull up a different display they can make that quick action of course the parachutes themselves should automatically deploy uh the whole really the whole flight is is meant to be automatic but having that extra layer of protection knowing that they are able to simply push a button and execute a very critical procedure so the parachutes don't drag them around in the water that is a very critical capability to have [Applause] if the seats themselves also actually actuate they can be configured to a number of different positions uh whether we are preparing for liftoff or landing and it's just to make sure that we orient the astronauts in the most comfortable position the safest position for those different parts of the the mission seeds will remain in this position for most of these upcoming activities including the departure phase burn as well as uh the trunk separation and deorbit burn right when the crew enters into the atmosphere the seats will actuate they'll get into a slightly different position right now this this position being good for monitoring the uh the displays and and having access to them but the seats will rotate once they uh start getting into the parachute deployment uh to brace them for landing the it'll be slightly more upright not exactly perfectly upright but just slightly more upright uh to allow them to take the loads uh of that uh 15 mile an hour splashdown so after this departure phase uh phasing burn um the next event that's going to happen is we're going to be separating the claw then jettisoning the trunk so the claw is essentially an umbilical that um connects the uh trunk to the capsule of the dragon so we saw earlier there was a graphic the trunk is essentially the the bottom half of the the the vehicle it's unpressurized and the crew sits in the capsule so the claw needs to be disconnected essentially that way the trunk can be jettisoned after we jettison the trunk the dragon vehicle is running exclusively on battery power that means that um everything the displays that we just saw um everything is internal to the capsule itself so it's sort of like its own micro environment for the the astronauts to safely return home that's right to separate the trunk from the dragon it's going to execute a series of what's called slews sloughs is when some of the draco engines are firing to change the orientation of the dragon slightly right now the dragon is flying sort of at an angle right now but it will change to essentially move over to the side so that when the trunk separation happens it's sending over the trunk in a completely different plane so there's no risk of conjunction with the two meeting each other as they enter into the earth's atmosphere after that maneuver the dragon will slew into a position where it's back at an angle where the um heat shield is facing towards the earth so it can make contact with the atmosphere and take the loads that is the really the heat that's going to be surrounding the vehicle uh it'll be that pica tiling that you were talking about earlier uh andy that's taking on about 3 500 degrees fahrenheit as the dragon itself uh enters through the earth's atmosphere the crew themselves will be experiencing about four g's which is why through a lot of this flight we've been getting regular check-ins with the cargo specialists here in mission control hawthorne making sure everything around the cabin was completely secured because it's a lot of uh that's a lot of g's you don't want things flying around when you're going through this phase uh from it'll be about seven minutes that the crew will be in this period where the vehicle will be completely surrounded by plasma so we'll have a comms blackout and we won't be able to hear from the crew from quite some time but this is really critical to have a safe reentry and landing you need to shave off a lot of velocity and right now the crew is going very very fast they're going 17 000 miles an hour orbiting the earth they're in an orbital velocity right now and so the atmosphere will do a lot of the bulk of the work uh to shave off that speed from 17 000 miles an hour to 350 miles an hour yeah and um it does it primarily through friction so right the way i like to think about it is if you rub your hands together uh very very quickly your hands start to get warm imagine doing that at 17 000 miles five seventeen thousand five hundred miles an hour it would get blisteringly hot and that's really what the dragon vehicle is experiencing upon re-entry and all that friction um gets converted to heat right it also slows down the vehicle that way we can deploy our shoots and get a nice again soft landing in the gulf of mexico so again we have a lot of recovery vessels that are ready for that moment uh we're coming up on it the very dynamic period that's that's coming up it's it's just a matter of time before we hear a confirmation of some of these critical burns that are going to be returning the crew home um the recovery assets uh have been listening along the way they've been watching the weather and a lot of them have deployed so we know that the go navigator is out heading towards the recovery site we know that there are fast boats that are going out as well they're going to take the bulk of the work once dragon splashes down to outfit it uh to do a sniff check making sure there's no hazardous gases that are leaking from the vehicle and make sure it's very safe to bring aboard because we have a lot of recovery personnel on board the go navigator there are two helicopters that were deployed from shore not too long ago and are making their way out to the recovery vessel there's a helipad that's on board these recovery vessels and so they'll drop a lot of the recovery personnel off and head back over to shore uh it'll be some time that the teams will be there to be able to um take the crew off there's medical personnel there there's uh there's representatives from different organizations we have european space agency we have uh the japan aerospace exploration agency nasa uh and then of course spacex personnel all going out to support this landing and we are targeting um under an hour after splashdown to get the dragon vehicle hoisted up on the recovery boat and the astronauts out it is a nighttime recovery and we've done several of these um already and it really doesn't um seem to slow down the recovery operations team we have spotlights there's a thermal camera that can spot dragon uh when it's coming back down so they have all the necessary tools to again quickly and safely recover the crew from the water that's right there's a wb-57 aircraft too forgot to mention that that has been deployed did hear confirmation of that wheels up so wb57 is on its way out to circle the landing site that wb-57 is a high-altitude aircraft with very specialized imaging equipment that's able to point at and track the entry of the crew dragon as it comes through the earth's atmosphere getting some initial data for the recovery team is very critical uh so it'll continue to track that it'll likely be the first images that we get uh from planet earth of the crew returning back uh and um we talked about uh dragon jettisoning the trunk the trunk uh sheds a ton of mass um a couple thousand pounds actually uh the dragon vehicle itself is uh also quite massive in that sense um when it splashes down uh it's actually waterproof and it can float so um there it really is no risk of water getting into the capsule um there are actually uh bladders offensive effectively where water can be pumped into these bladders to make sure that dragon is is upright so for those uh just joining you're watching live coverage of the return of nasa's crew 2 mission uh the dragon vehicle endeavor has departed the international space station at 11 05 am pacific time or 1905 gmt with nasa astronauts shane kimbrough and megan macarthur jaxa astronaut aki hoshide and issa astronaut thomas heading home back here on earth following departure dragon did its first ever fly around of the international space station and then underwent a sequence of departure burns since then the crew has enjoyed one meal aboard the spacecraft and of course they got suited up which you're seeing from some of the views on board now in this next phase of the mission is when things really get exciting gary dragon has a series of steps to complete before returning shane megan aki and tomorrow home first dragon will maneuver to the correct attitude and then jettison its trunk which is again the cylindrical unpressurized part of the spacecraft the trunk is currently connected to the after bottom section of the dragon capsule where the heat shield is located so in order to expose that heat shield and get the vehicle ready for atmospheric re-entry we'll jettison the trunk from there the spacecraft will use its forward thrusters to perform a deorbit burn which will put dragon on a trajectory to return to earth it really commits them to do so that burn will last about 16 and a half minutes once it starts and to prepare these upcoming events um right now the dragon capsule is doing a couple of things autonomously it'll start to isolate the thermal control systems fluid and uh thermal control system fluid loops from the radiator this system is what will help keep the internal temperatures of dragon uh temperate for shane uh during re-entry uh dragon is also initiating separation of the claw mechanism again that's going to terminate data power and fluid connections between the capsule and the trunk so we're waiting uh for the next series of steps first of course will be the uh slewing to separate the trunk there will be a claw separation and the trunk itself will jettison and of course we'll enter into the deorbit burn we're monitoring to see if there will be a departure phase burn i know we're past the point where we were tracking that but we did introduce and we didn't talk about this was an out of plane burn and it was also a prop dump burn it fired for the forward bulkhead dracos for about three minutes uh and so the teams here are analyzing the phasing and it looks like uh we'll make sure that there are there is not that departure phase burn but uh we may be heading right into the deorbit burn here very shortly here yeah so we are expecting that slew or again the maneuvering to jettison the trunk um we'll start that in about um in about eight minutes here and then the call separation is expected um just past 6 30. uh so again dragon's gonna start to maneuver itself call separation comes first right and then trunk separation right so again we are providing continuous coverage uh gary's been here for uh the better part of the day from undocking and then we'll cover through splashdown and recovery of the team as well so don't go anywhere we are just waiting on a couple of major events here enjoying some views of the crew inside the capsule as you can see on screen [Music] [Music] dragon the orbit sequence start in five minutes what's up all right so we are continuing to track the uh return of crew 2 and the astronauts back to planet earth we just heard we are just moments away from entering the deorbit sequence we did a quick fact check on some of the burns that we've been monitoring throughout today's flight as we've been providing continuous coverage and we did get confirmation that that uh departure phase burn which we have discussed takes the dragon out of the ecoeliptic phasing that is really uh matching the international space station uh with both the perigee and apogee and puts it on a course uh with that landing site which is pensacola florida that did happen so so we do have confirmation that all of the phasing burns the departure burns that are necessary to line dragon up for the deorbit sequence which we're hearing is about to uh take place here momentarily uh that we are all lined up all of the burdens have taken place dragon is in a good phase a good position to get ready for this next sequence of very critical events and what that means is we have just one more burn left the deorbit burn right a couple of things need to happen again before we um start this uh in about three minutes we'll begin to maneuver or slew the dragon uh to the appropriate um attitude in order to prep for claw separation and then trunk separation after that we'll slew back the uh the four forward bulkhead thrusters um underneath the nose cone uh will fire for about 16 and a half minutes that will be what slows down dragon and brings its altitude down enough to start to sort of hit some of the atmospheric particles of earth and then from there we'll start to re-enter the earth's atmosphere enter that blackout period for about seven minutes where there's just plasma being built up around the exterior of dragon so we'll lose communications for about seven minutes after that we'll regain communications we have uh parachute deploys we have two sets uh first up is the drogue shoots that will take the dragon uh veloci the dragon capsule velocity from about 350 miles per hour to 120 miles an hour from there the main shoots will deploy taking us from 120 miles an hour down to about 15 for a nice soft landing uh on off the ghost off the coat the gulf of mexico so that is going to kick off here very shortly we're coming up on just about an hour from the predicted splashdown time we did hear there were slight adjustments in some of the sequence and that sequence the deorbit sequence itself about to begin here momentarily with starting with the claw separation and trunk separation but that'll kick off once that sequence starts it's about an hour timeline uh from the time that that sequence starts to the time that we are in the water uh we're still targeting 7 33 p.m pacific standard time 10 33 p.m eastern standard time yeah so again uh everything that we just talked about it's going to happen in that hour so uh you know we we saw the crew enjoy their meal they don their spacesuits once again and they really had a bit of a respite before right these very dynamic portions of of the the operation so things will definitely get exciting here in the next couple of minutes and we'll be with you every step of the way uh we're expecting communications with the crew throughout each of these different phases confirmation of trunk separation uh the claw the claw opening the claw separation trunk separation uh when the deorbit burn starts it's going to be quite uh quite a long time that those forward bulkhead dracos will fire it is the longest burn of the entire flight the eight and a half hour journey from undocking from the international space station to splashing down off the coast of florida 16 and a half minutes in this particular phasing because of the short flight uh that is a much longer burn uh with some of the longer phases when we're talking about 18 or 19 hours sequence start there you go so again that was confirmation of the beginning of the deorbit sequence again it involves uh a a number of different items to occur right now again the the dragon is starting to maneuver itself orient itself to prep for claw and trunk separation so the first step is the claw separation right now we're in the preparation phase this is an automatic sequence now that we're in the deorbit sequence which just kicked off uh it's an automatic sequence that starts with claw separation the claw is uh essentially the umbilic the umbilical that routes uh power to the dragon capsule it's connected as part of the trunk so we'll disconnect that first pop off the trunk so to speak and once that happens the dragon capsule is um running exclusively exclusively on its own internal batteries and there's plenty to spare too through the six months or so that the dragon has been attached to the international space station it really hasn't had to rely on its own power at all the international space station has gigantic basketball court sized uh solar arrays in addition to a couple of new solar arrays that some of the crew 2 astronauts themselves installed and deployed on the outside of the station all providing power not only to the international space station but to the dragon while it's been docked during the docked phase the dragon itself is connected via umbilical that provides communication and of course power to the vehicle so the batteries were fully charged for the ride home and then even upon separation you can see uh you were able to see through some of the views the uh trunk itself has a series of solar arrays that are on one side of the trunk able to provide a small amount of power throughout this uh this phase of flight so we are expecting to get confirmation of call separation and then shortly after trunk separation we did hear claw separation is confirmed dragon is now automatically going into the preparations for trunk separation the trunk itself separating it exposes the heat shield again that is very necessary to protect the capsule from the high temperatures that it will be experiencing during re-entry dragon nominal trunk jettison copying donald trump jefferson it's a great way to start off the orbit sequence the trunk is off and everything is uh going smoothly so far coming up next uh we're going to be re reorienting the dragon and then starting up the deorbit burn right now we are in a slew so now that the dragon has uh physically separated the trunk the trunk has confirmed to have separated itself from the dragon capsule uh that slew had dragon oriented slightly to the side relative to how it is orbiting to allow there not to be a conjunction between the two um bodies as they now enter into the deorbit phase so now the dragon itself is slowing into a position with the forward bulkhead dracos pointing straight on the velocity bar or the v-bar essentially the same direction that the dragon is orbiting uh to be prepared to fire the four bulkhead dracos for 16 and a half minutes uh that sequence should be coming up here in about two minutes we should be hearing the confirmation that the forward bulkhead dracos are firing and we'll so we'll we'll monitor that make sure that the deorbit bird is good and that we have a good burn once that burn is complete dragon is committed to re-enter the earth's atmosphere and splash down off the coast of pensacola florida yeah that's going to be the last time that we fire the the forward bulkhead thrusters on the dragon vehicle and so again after we we finished the deorbit burn the nose cone which is currently open right now we're going to be closing that it takes a couple of minutes to close and then it latches shut this protects the avionics and all of the the items underneath the nose cone but we'll latch that shut because we're not going to be firing the dracos anymore and then dragon really will be on its trajectory towards the primary landing side off the coast of pensacola and we're hearing confirmation from the flight control teams here in hawthorne the dragon capsule is now switched its attitude it's slewed into the deorbit position and is in the deorbit attitude now standing by for about a minute from now uh where the dragon itself will fire those four for forward bulkhead dracos beginning the deorbit sequence a very critical part of today's flight so yeah we will be bringing continuous coverage uh all the way through uh splashdown and recovery of the crew on screen right now is a view of uh hawthorne mission control uh folks are starting to gather around anticipating crew 2's return again off the coast of florida in under an hour now that's right we are in the home stretch so it is worth mentioning again that the dragon vehicle itself is a very um sophisticated intelligent vehicle um the maneuvers that it has been doing throughout its undocking phase and part of its downhill um sequences really are autonomous the crew are definitely trained uh to help support dragon in case things go off nominal but really for the most part dragon is piloting itself it knows where it's at where it wants to go and it's making all these minor adjustments um as needed so the crew is in good hands they are definitely on the trajectory they need to be to return home safely back here on earth so we're just moments away again the d orbit sequence has started right on time so we had a confirmed claw separation and trunk separation dragon is now in an orientation with a forward bulkhead dracos pointed where they need to be for this very critical burn the deorbit burn uh we've been waiting for this moment for quite some time a lot of the departure burns that we've been following over the past couple of hours have been really in anticipation of this moment we've been following weather all along the way because once we start this deorbit burn really there's no going back that means that the dragon itself is committed to return back to earth and confirm that the deorbit burn has started initial checks show that the dynamics of that burn are looking pretty good this is going to be a long burn 16 and a half minutes so a quick recap within the last 10 minutes a lot has happened the dragons has jettisoned its trunk and initiated the d-orbit burn uh which started now at about 6 40 p.m pacific standard time for these operations dragon and spacex closely coordinate with the united states coast guard to establish a 10 nautical mile safety zone to ensure public safety and for the safety of those involved in the recovery operations as well as the crew on board their returning spacecraft multiple notices are issued to the mariners in the in advance and during recovery operations and the coast guard patrol boats are deployed to discourage boaters from entering the splashdown zones we really want to stress to the public the need to respect the safety zone recovering a spacecraft from the water is a hazardous operation and any other boats interfering increases the risk to astronauts in the capsule the teams working to recover them from the water and the safety of those that come to close for the safety of the crew and your safety we recommend that you sit back and watch and we'll be bringing you the best possible coverage of our astronauts homecoming and like i mentioned earlier this dealer burn is the last time that those four forward draco thrusters will fire uh dragon endeavor has not yet entered earth's atmosphere yet this dior vern is what will line the vehicle up and put it on its final trajectory to the landing so to the landing site in the gulf of mexico just off the coast of pensacola florida so right now shane megan aki and tomah they're using their screens to keep tabs on the burn durations draco thruster firings and trajectory details like entry angle capsule perigee and how much distance remaining until the deorbit burn is terminated they have access that uh with the displays in front of them again dragon is essentially flying itself so all the crew has to do is uh stay strapped into their seats and keep tabs on things so we're waiting to hear the callout for uh nominal burn uh to confirm completion of the d orbit burn for uh dragon endeavor that's going to be coming up in about 12 minutes 13 minutes so it's still a bit longer to go on this deal repair that's right we're coming up on about three minutes into the deorbit burn and it is a very long burn particularly with this phasing which is the short trip from undocking to splashdown that doesn't include a sleep period or anything for the crew they're really in it for the long haul these forward bulkhead dracos need to fire for about 16 and a half minutes we've seen very similar profiles for some of the other missions crew one and i believe crew 2 had had a pretty similar profile or not crew 2 demo 2 had a very similar profile about roughly the same period of time uh from the time of undocking to the time of splashdown so it seems to be a pretty popular profile so we'll just sit back and make sure that the deorbit burn is is continuing to look good and so far teams are tracking that it is we're about four minutes in at this point um which is into a 16 and a half minute burn and on screen is uh rr4 astronauts on board dragon uh left to right issa's tomah pesquet he is the mission specialist uh then we have the pilot megan macarthur and uh the commander shane kimbrough both from nasa and then we have jaxa astronaut akihiko hoshide who is also the mission specialist so again they are both uh they are all in their suits um strapped in and eagerly waiting their their return and uh a breath of fresh earth air uh in about 45 minutes oh excuse me um 45 minutes until splashdown about an hour until they can egress the vehicle each of them has had a long journey on board the international space station they've been in space for 199 days 198 of those were attached to the international space station each of them have had very critical roles uh in the some of the activities that have taken place on board uh tomorrow pesquet uh just handed over command of the international space station he was commander for just a little bit uh for the very beginning of expedition 66. he handed he took over command of the international space station from aki hoshide who had it for quite some time during expedition 65 he was the international space station commander of course we heard that uh shane kimbrough is the commander for the uh crew dragon vehicle uh and each of those three have conducted uh several spacewalks on board the international space station there have been four spacewalks completed uh that each of them took part in tomah pesquet taking place taking part in all four of them uh there was one uh spacewalk that was to set up uh one of the station's power systems with a modification kit in preparation for future solar arrays that was done by tomah paske and aki hoshide the first time that international astronauts not from the us or russia were part of a uh a spacewalk so they did make history there and then of course shane kimbrough conducted three of those himself so he has nine spacewalks under his belt and he has uh one of the all-time records for most amount of time in space for any u.s astronaut he's sitting at 380 days of his career total over his three space flights to the inter um well to the international space station and as part of a shuttle mission as well six minutes into the 16 minute deorbit burn we're looking good yeah earlier we had a um out of plane burn and that was also used as a propellant wasting burn and so we dumped a lot of mass with the propellant propellants that we don't need anymore that in combination with the drug the trunk uh jettison that we just had sheds a lot of mass from the vehicle it actually makes this deorbit burn a lot more efficient so that way we can be as again as efficient as possible to slow down the vehicle bring its altitude down in order for it to begin its reentry phase this is a very critical phase we've we've seen a lot of action over these uh past couple of hours as we've been providing some continuous coverage uh it all started with some uh hatch closure uh where the dragon crew said goodbye to the crew on board the international space station only three crew members on board now that includes uh commander anton shkaplerov from russ cosmos as well as piotr du bravo versus cosmos and then mark vande high who is pulling the long haul here he's going to be on station for almost a year uh and he'll be really the responsible for the handover that the crew 2 astronauts would have done if they were to have the crew three astronauts arrive before them but again we've we've mentioned this a couple of times andy throughout our coverage uh part of the reason why we're executing a de-orbit burn right now heading for a splashdown off the coast of pensacola is because the weather looks really really good and weather is a uh is one of those primary driving factors for taking a crew home if the weather looks this good with with very calm you said lake like states is what we heard on loops uh very calm winds and of course we we get we did get confirmation that the skies are clear as well so we might even get some pretty good views from the wb-57 as well as the ship uh the recovery ship go navigator as the crew is entering um it's really just it's too perfect to pass up yeah and and that's really uh sort of the the um the story here um we originally planned to launch crew 3 prior to crew tube coming home and they were gonna do the handoff in person at the international space station weather wasn't quite cooperating with us um halloween weekend uh but again gary you mentioned this this recovery weather is too good to pass up right and so um the the teams that have been supporting this mission uh or really both missions uh really uh this is a testament to their flexibility um to be able to uh get this together and make sure that the crew too can come home safely in the midst of again this really optimal weather very very true and and again we are monitoring the weather and it does look good out in the gulf coast part of the reason that we're landing the crew right now in the gulf is because the weather over there looks good and the reason why we're we're going to wait to launch the crew 3 astronauts no earlier than november 10th is because the weather out there is something that we continue to monitor it's not only the weather out at the east coast off the coast of cape canaveral in florida that we're looking at but really the weather all along the ascent corridor has to cooperate as well so that includes all along the eastern seaboard that includes the north pacific all of that has to look good because really in any abort scenario you'd be looking at the crew escaping from the top of the falcon 9 rocket using those super dracos we were talking about super dracos a little earlier and splashing down anywhere along the site and so you have to make sure that the weather is cooperating really all along the way so it's got to be the right conditions yeah there are um multiple teams that plan for all sorts of these types of contingencies it is fantastic when things go well as we've been seeing for a very long time and we love that but we want to make sure that in case um anything were to go awry we have plans for that and weather again is one of the things that we need to make sure we pay attention to so we're about six six minutes away from right uh finishing this deorbit burn again this is the last burn for the dragon vehicle after this we'll close the nose cone flip the dragon around and uh start to head into the earth's atmosphere um and um really after this it's it's really about 30 minutes about 40 30 or 40 minutes until we see the dragon capsule in the gulf of mexico it's going to happen very quickly it is a lot is going to happen in fact when it comes to the parachutes they are that sequence is automatic but it happens seconds from each other the mortars themselves are deployed to release two drogue parachutes that slows the uh dragon capsule down from 350 miles per hour initially those are the the right after we get outside of the blackout zone which is uh when the uh uh dragon itself is entering through the atmosphere engulfed in plasma so the communications can't get through but uh right when we exit out of that we get an acquisition of signal and are able to talk to the crew inside dragon again they should be traveling a roughly 350 miles an hour but once we deploy those drogue shoots all of that's going to really happen at about 7 29 p.m pacific time 10 29 p.m eastern the drogue parachutes will deploy uh they'll stay out for a little bit and then 40 seconds later the ma the four main parachutes will deploy uh and from 350 miles an hour with that sequence that's happening really in the matter of one minute uh with all of the parachutes that'll gently slow down the dragon and its crew down to about 15 miles an hour yeah and we we mentioned safety we've been talking about safety throughout this whole broadcast as soon as the dragon capsule hits the water one of the first things that happens is the main shoots get cut and what this means is um today there are really no winds essentially but um we don't want uh we wouldn't want the dragon capsule to be pulled by wind in any direction so we'll cut the parachutes immediately upon splashdown and there's a there's a boat that is part of its main function is to go out and recover that parachute that uh cutting of the main parachutes happens automatically on board the dragon but when we were talking about some of the physical buttons that the crew have on their display panel one of those physical buttons which is really important to have instead of having it on a touch screen that you have to navigate to really easy access to a button that says cut the parachutes if for whatever reason they want to automatically do it themselves which we've seen on some of the uh previous crude missions they did automatically cut they do have the ability to do so and these parachutes have been tested uh hundreds of times um and so uh you know the design the parachutes can be tricky but uh you know we've used these parachutes as a part of all the cargo missions prior to the upgraded dragon and now we're using them as part of this operations too as you mentioned uh as the right after the dragon splashes down in the ocean there are two what are called fast boats that will that are part of the prime recovery team that will immediately go out to the capsule one of the boats will go right over to the capsule and start out to start outfitting it with some rigging equipment they'll do a sniff check to make sure there are no hazardous gases that are leaking from the spacecraft make sure it's safe for the next uh series of events where the go navigator's uh recovery ship will go out and hoist it onto the ship itself but you were mentioning the other fast boat it serves as a backup to that boat just in case that were you know some motor function were to happen and it can't get out to the capsule in time but uh its prime function if the other boat is looking pretty good uh is to go collect the parachutes so again about about two minutes two minutes for the end of the final burn um the dragon and the crew have gone through um a number of burns throughout uh today's downhill phase uh so um again we are uh nearing the end of sort of the marathon here uh so this must be exciting for the crew on board the dragon as well knowing that uh this is the last burn that they're gonna feel uh last burn that they're gonna hear and uh after this it's really going to be um a smooth smooth sailing uh so to speak uh into the atlantic ocean or into the gulf of mexico so the words we're waiting to hear right now are nominal de-orbit burn uh those are very important words that'll be uh sent over to the crew right now the nose cone has been opened to expose the four forward bulkhead dracos that have been doing a lot of the hefty heavy lifting with this deorbit burn uh pointing straight uh at the velocity uh bar it's a retro firing of the of the uh thrusters to slow the vehicle down and really ultimately make contact with the atmosphere that's the point of this burn but as long as we have a good burn it'll be just a matter of a couple of minutes it's it's a very quick sequence to close the nose cone it's a very important function to close the nose cone it protects the forward bulkhead dracos it protects the docking mechanism that it's been that's been used to keep dragon attached to the international space station for six months it protects some of the guidance and navigation equipment of course this vehicle is reusable we're seeing it now this is a reused vehicle it was used originally on on the demo2 mission uh so all critical functions that need to be protected uh before it slews to the position uh where the heat shield is pointed right towards the earth and does the heavy lifting of protecting the the capsule and of course more importantly the crew inside uh from the 3 500 degrees fahrenheit that's going to be experienced as the dragon capsule enters the earth as part of the recovery operations after um dragon do you have a burn complete performance nominal nose cone closure has been initiated that is the news that we were looking for andy uh nominal de-orbit burn that means that that burn did its job you see immediately we're going into closing the nose cone so now that it's done its job uh the forward bulkhead dracos will not be fired again we're gonna close uh the nose cone and protect some of those critical equipment uh and get the dragon oriented in a position ready for entry yeah so it takes a couple of minutes for the nose going to close it doesn't just swing shut um and so it'll be closed and then there will be latches that will secure it into position from there we will slew the dragon uh into his orientation to make sure that the heat shields are are facing forward so to speak um they will the heat shield will be what meets the earth's atmosphere first it'll absorb and dissipate all that heat upon re-entry and then um you know we'll uh enter our we'll go through the the the blackout period uh uh where we won't have comms to uh from dragon to ground or ground to dragon then after that we'll deploy our parachutes and land so the atmosphere is going to do a lot of the work here to slow the vehicle down we're still close to orbital velocity of course we're a little bit slower because we're dropping in altitude and that is purposeful the dragon and the crew inside is now committed to enter the earth's atmosphere and splash down off the coast of pensacola florida dragon systems look good the crew is monitoring every step of the way and checking in and saying that they are following closely everything's looking good on that end and of course the weather is is cooperating which is super essential so we're about to enter into the atmosphere and slow down all the way down to 350 miles per hour it's going to be a number of minutes for that procedure to take place it takes about seven minutes from the time that we enter into the earth's atmosphere and lose the signal with the crew so don't worry that is normal we expect a loss of signal for about seven minutes uh the communications can't get through the plasma that's engulfing uh the dragon on its way uh in uh but it should be about a seven minute period as predicted right so there may be a little extra lag time in there just depending on a series of events but uh they'll be calling to the crew at the end of that anticipated period to check in and and hear how that sequence went and make sure everything is good for the next series of automatic events which is the deployment of the parachutes and eventual splashdown yeah it is important to note that uh prior to the deorbit sequence uh we did hear communications from the crew to the uh to the core here uh they were updated on timelines so the crew onboard dragon knows exactly what to expect too they know when the blackout period is going to happen they know when um approximately the sigma is going to be coming back and we typically hear pings sometimes from dragon to ground or and sometimes from ground to dragon waiting for the acquisition of signal so there are no surprises every every really every every party that's supporting this mission is well aware of what is about to happen so it's going to be a number of minutes until we actually get into the entry sequence right now we're coming up at about 7 p.m pacific time which is 10 p.m uh eastern standard time it's about roughly another 20 minutes until we actually get into that entry interface um uh so so it's still some time uh we we are right now in a good position with the uh deorbit burn sequence initiated and uh it puts uh dragon in an orientation getting ready uh we can see it slewing now to get ready for that entry prep really with the heat shield pointed towards the earth so we're in the final stretch here andy it's uh it's really happening so we should get confirmation if not already that the nose cone has closed and we are getting confirmation nose cone is closed and so again we are slowing to the right orientation and um during this for the next 19 minutes or so dragon's altitude is decreasing and then once we get low enough and start building that friction uh we will enter the blackout communication so around 7 uh 19 p.m pacific time is when we're expecting the blackout communication spirit so as we begin the second half of entry dragon is now beginning to flush nitrox into the cabin and continuing to top off shane magenaki and tomas suits with cool air again this is what we what will allow the cabin temperature to remain comfortable while external temperatures reach 3 500 degrees fahrenheit that heat shield is pointed forward leading the capsule to that landing site and we are targeting the primary site today um tonight uh off the coast of pensacola florida um so very exciting under 30 minutes or just over 30 minutes 7 33 p.m pacific time is our targeted uh splashdown time right we did hear that go call up to the crew that we're still targeting that same exact site even with a slight shifts in some of the other uh events particularly with the loss and acquisition of signal that seven minute blackout period that we were talking about but uh all in all we're still looking at that same time for uh splashing down uh in the gulf of mexico so stay with us we're going to continue to provide coverage through this very dynamic sequence um we will even after splashdown we're going to remain on air we want to make sure that the crew is safe once they splash down off the gulf of mexico so once they splash down it takes less than an hour um in in nominal recovery procedures to go out to the boat uh or to go out to the capsule rather and outfit it to get onto the dragon nest which is on the recovery ship and bring it in for the hatch uh opening the side hatch and recovering the uh the crew inside we'll continue to provide coverage uh as each of the four astronauts egress or exit from the capsule itself uh we hopefully will get uh some views of them maybe pumping fists or as long as they're feeling healthy of course uh we'll get some views of them on the recovery ship and after that we are looking forward to talking to some leadership from some of the respective agencies uh we're expecting to have some representatives from nasa the european space agency and the japanese the japan aerospace exploration agency call in to provide some final comments now that we have we can declare a mission success all coming up very soon but first we have to pay attention of course on the mission itself making sure that these crew members are about to return to homes return back to earth safely dragon nose cone secure for entry endeavor copies nose gun secured endeavor spacex for entry brief entry brief shane things are looking really good no delta is the timeline vehicle is nominal we're tracking no issues for entry entry targeting is also nominal note that you may see the landing site slightly off in the world view that is expected and nominal due to entry purge and uh entry guidance will clean that up so that's nominal there's no deltas to weather the recovery fast boats have been launched and they're awaiting your arrival i'll copy great news all around thanks chris and we talk to you all we copy thank you further affirmation that everything continues to look good we did have a successful de-orbit burn and so we're just really in a waiting period right now before we begin that entry uh coming up in approximately 10 minutes uh when the crew themselves will enter into the earth's atmosphere and uh the heat shield being pointed in the right direction and the vehicle itself will slow down uh over the course of about seven minutes uh until they get on the other side into the earth's atmosphere and we can talk to them again uh slowing down from 17 000 miles an hour to about 350 miles an hour that briefing was spectacular andy uh it sounds like the weather is cooperating and all of the recovery teams are in place in fact the fast boats that we were talking about earlier have already deployed uh we are getting ready uh to bring these guys home yeah there are really no changes in uh what uh we were expecting or what we heard prior to the deorbit sequence so uh in that sense everything was great leading up to the deorbit sequence and everything remains great right now for uh crew splashdown and recovery so again uh we've been hearing nothing but good news uh all broadcasts uh we are about five minutes away from slewing of the dragon to orient it correctly and then a few minutes after that from um anticipated loss of signal again that communications blackout period due to the plasma build up around the dragon capsule so a lot's going to happen let's go through the sequence of events here while we have a little bit of time as we're waiting for that slew of course and then of course the the entry sequence itself once the dragon slews or orients itself right in the precise position where the heat shield is pointed in the right direction andy as you mentioned we're going to enter into a period where we will lose the signal and that's just because of the plasma that's building up on the outside of spacecraft communications can't get through so uh the plasma is building up because we are using the atmosphere itself to slow us down we're going about 17 000 uh miles an hour now and we need to slow down um quite a bit uh eventually to get us to about 15 miles an hour so the bulk of that will happen uh during the entry into earth's atmosphere it'll it'll shave off from 17 000 miles an hour to about 350 miles an hour uh from there there will be a sequence of parachute deployments first with the drogue shoots uh that'll perform the initial slowdown from 350 miles an hour to i think it was you said about 120 miles an hour and then from there it's only a matter of seconds about 40 seconds after drove shoot deploy that those will be cut off and the four main parachutes will deploy uh from the dragon itself slowing it down to about 15 miles an hour we are aiming right on time for a glass-like uh a bit we've heard lake i've i've heard the word pool uh um uh wave conditions the out at pensacola florida look absolutely pristine so so things are looking pretty good for us so far so after splashdown we just heard that the fast boats are on their way to the recovery site um there are two of them uh the first fastboat will approach the dragon capsule that's in the water and do a couple of things uh really a lot of safety checks to make sure there isn't any ordinances or any type of chemicals in the air they'll also do a vehicle integrity check to make sure things are looking great on the vehicle and then give the go for the rest of the recovery team to approach the vehicle the other recovery vessel as long as that first fast boat is is able to do its job the other fast boat will go ahead and recover the main chute that's in the water if the first fast boat for whatever reason motor failure who knows cannot do their job it serves as a redundant vehicle from there a a rigger who's typically approaches the vehicle on a jet ski will approach the vehicle and actually physically climb up on top of the dragon capsule they carry with them a lot of hardware a lot of hoisting equipment that they'll need to attach to the capsule and this is really to prepare the vehicle to be again lifted out of the water there is a larger recovery vessel that has a sort of a hoisting a crane of sorts on the back of it and there's a platform or nest um that the uh recovery vessel will uh hoist the the dragon capsule out of the water place it on the nest secure it in place from there a couple more checks what will happen and then we can uh finally get to see the crew egress uh the dragon capsule that's right the nest itself moves a little bit further in spacex for crew entry preparations [Applause] hey spacex our tablets are secured the trains are tightened visors are down we copy all thank you approximately four minutes three zero seconds until anticipated calm blackout we'll see you in the side at zero three two six four minutes three zero seconds takes us to 7 20 right on the money 7 20 p.m pacific standard time 8 20 p.m eastern uh so that's uh the calm blackout that we were talking about it's a seven minute period where uh we're really in the atmosphere at that point the heat shield is doing its job of dissipating the 3 500 degrees of heat that's surrounding the vehicle at that time and slowing the vehicle down down to uh 350 miles an hour so so everything is happening right on cue 7 20 p.m is when we're expecting that loss of signal it is an estimate um so there might be a variation of a couple of seconds couple of minutes we'll stand by for that seven minute period uh so we'll be looking at uh approximately 7 20 uh to 7 27. yeah and again as we get closer to the end of the blackout communications period we will be we typically hear um the either dragon or ground pinging each other to make sure that they do have signal acquisition so again seven minutes and and we'll be with you uh the entire way uh for signal acquisition uh shortly after that the drove shoots will deploy that that happens at about 18 000 feet and then at 6 500 feet that's when the main shoots deploy so we talked about deployment in terms of speed right but there are sensors on the dragon vehicle that detect both velocity and pressure and they know basically exactly when to deploy so again the dragon vehicle super intelligent and uh uh basically pilots itself um that's why even through this blackout period the dragon knows where it's at it knows where it needs to go so the crew is is in good hands an automatic flight all the way it really started about eight hours ago uh when the uh dragon itself more than eight hours ago at this point undocked from the international space station the zenith port and backed up to about 220 meters an automatic procedure followed by an automatic fly around in fact the crew were really hands off throughout that whole period the commander shane kimbrough and pilot megan mcarthur were in their seats monitoring the entire procedure while tamar pesquet was at the forward window that was pointed right at the international space station taking pictures for about an hour and a half as it circled the international space station we got awesome pictures of the international space station i'm anticipating i haven't seen them yet but uh i'm definitely looking forward to them all of that was automatic and then of course the departure burns that got us to break away from the keep out sphere and the approach ellipsoid that surround the international space station and get us into uh a lower altitude about 10 kilometers below the station which we were at for quite some time uh followed by the departure phase burn uh we had a good trunk jettison cloth or a claw separation trunk jettison and then of course the super important deorbit burn all right on time this has been a fantastic flight so far so we are just 25 minutes away from splashdown and so again we are entering going to be answering that black on communication spirit but uh once we're on the other side so to speak of that things happen to very very quickly drove shoots deploy main shoes to boy and we're in the water just a few minutes later and you mentioned gary the wb 57 is up in the air it is equipped with um uh imaging technology that will be able to get pretty much the first views of the dragon capsule uh on its return back to earth so we do expect to see uh that great footage here in a couple minutes as well we're about 30 seconds from the anticipated loss of signal uh this is really the beginning of a seven minute period where the crew themselves will be okay we're and we're hearing from the dragon teams here in mission control hawthorne they're starting to see some drag so we are now making contact with the upper limits of the atmosphere right now that's going to be slowing the vehicle down quite a bit now seconds away from the anticipated loss of signal so we're in the expected period now that was uh the anticipated loss of signal so so the clock starts uh approximately now uh until about 7 27 pm pacific 10 27 pm eastern now in the blackout and entry period and we did hear that uh we did hear some initial confirmation from the dragon teams here they're starting to see some drag um so we'll see the vehicle slow down here quite a bit during this reentry phase the team is going to be experiencing um deceleration uh right now they're going through that as well as when the parachutes deploy the seats actually will rotate themselves to about 26 degrees to make sure that the crew is oriented properly for when um the shoots deploy so uh the the during the downhill phase uh very similar g-forces experience about 3.5 to maybe anywhere to like 4.5 g's so uh the crew is is definitely going to be anticipating that and that's that's definitely part of their training and knowledge so we're standing by we did we are in the blackout period right now this blackout period expected to last an additional six or so minutes uh until we hear some of the first calls from the crew inside dragon now slowing down from 17 000 miles an hour to about 350 miles an hour when we hear them on the other side of this blackout period again we have a wb 57 high altitude aircraft that is deployed with an imaging system on board to to get those initial views using infrared cameras that are on board so even though it is night time as long as the vehicle is able to identify and track the vehicle which with the infrared camera will be easy just look for the hot thing that just came from the uh from the atmosphere it'll be able to get those initial views and confirmation of the status of the vehicle the very first confirmation which is very critical to the teams monitoring the operations and of course the recovery teams that are out in the gulf right now fast boats have been deployed so we got confirmation of that the helicopters have landed on the go navigator recovery vessel and the teams are on the vessel right now getting ready to uh welcome the crew on board once the uh fast boats get out to the capsule and rig it with some of the equipment that's necessary to hoist it on board using the a-frame on the go navigator spacecraft uh we're really in the critical period right now just uh eagerly awaiting i think all the teams are the coms at the end when we have an acquisition of signal from the crew and some of the first views of the spacecraft itself and confirmation of the next sequence of automatic events which are the deployment of the parachutes yeah and the earth's atmosphere certainly does make it easier for the wb-57 to spot the hot thing it is uh excess of 3000 degrees fahrenheit so it should be able to spot it in the sky there should be nothing else like it right at this time uh we're again a couple minutes away from um starting to exit that uh phase where we're seeing a lot of plasma and so we are expecting um pings from dragon or ground to try to get the acquisition of signal so again i mentioned uh things are going to be happening very very quickly as soon as we get out of here gary we are under 10 minutes until splashdown i cannot wait uh this is a very uh dynamic period so we are listening very closely uh to all of the different sequence of event because as you're saying andy a lot is going to happen we're more than halfway through this expected blackout period an expected seven minute period of course there might be some variation but we're expecting an acquisition of signal and initial communications from the crew before we see uh the deployment of the drogue parachutes and and main parachutes there's about maybe about two minutes difference from when we should first hear from the crew themselves at about 7 27 and about 7 29 p.m pacific is when we should see the drogues and the main shoots deploy and again i say both of them at 7 29 because that's how fast that sequence is um it's about eight second deployment from uh of confirmation of the drogue shoots themselves and 40 seconds later the shoot the main shoots are out it's very very quick so really any any minute now we are expecting anticipated acquisition of signal to reconnect that communications line between the spacecraft and the folks here on the ground at earth from this moment in time about a minute left in the anticipated period again it's not it's not an exact science um there might be some variation we might hear from them early we might hear from them late it just depends on a couple of different factors but we're all eagerly at the edge of our seats right now just uh standing by waiting to hear from the crew so far things looking good and we'll continue to track it as we enter the final moments of this blackout period we're getting wb views the first views of crew dragon look at that tail that's the 3 500 degrees look for the hot thing right it is the hottest thing in the sky right now uh that is such a it's it's literally lighting up the stepper spacex come check beautiful beautiful and dragon we've got you expect automated parachute deployment and we have you on visual wonderful to hear from the crew on the other side of the blackout period the wb-57 high-altitude aircraft providing that thermal imaging we saw the tail of the entry of the vehicle itself absolutely beautiful gps converge expect nominal altitude for drugs tapping gps thrown out so again nominal altitude for drogue deployment that happens at about 18 000 feet again good news after good news gary things are looking great for crew to return i am loving this flight that that altitude expected one minute from now right as anticipated andy dragon brace for drug window the thermal imaging system on board the wb 57 is getting us great views of the capsule but should give us equally good views of the drug deployment expected seconds from now the capsule is traveling about 350 miles an hour and the drugstore's job is to slow it down to about 120. drogues deployed confirmation that'll slow us down from 350 miles an hour to 120 miles an hour dragon video on two healthy jobs descent rate nominal so in about 30 seconds the main shoots are going to come out there are four of them and they deploy at about 6 500 feet oh gary look at this this is an excellent view of the drogue parachutes there it is stroke separation main shoot deploy we'll wait for confirmation of four healthy mans [Music] [Applause] meters you really can't ask for anything better we got confirmation of uh you heard on the loops there four healthy mains descent rate is nominal that means we are expecting splashdown three minutes from now visually you can see one of the mains uh taking slightly longer to inflate but the teams are uh are tracking that as a nominal inflation rate uh and the dissent rate is as expected we do have four healthy mains and we are expecting an on time splashdown 600 meters we copy six 600 meters this is a better shot of those four healthy main parachutes attached to the dragon spacecraft endeavor as it continues to descend meters the rate is as expected 400 meters from splashdown 300 meters standing by for confirmation of splashdown hmm [Applause] release on behalf of spacex welcome home to planet earth hey chris it's great to be back to planet earth thank you and jackson teams uh it was an honor to represent you and work with us to our family look forward to seeing you soon splashdown confirmed at 7 33 p.m pacific 10 33 p.m eastern standard time four astronauts of crew two shane kimbrough megan mcarthur aki hoshide and tomah pesquet now safely returned to earth confirmation that the main parachutes have been cut and you can see from the thermal imaging camera that the fast boats are already on their way to meet up with crew dragon endeavor now splashing down off the coast of florida for the second time three we think we're hey shane you're coming in broken but we see stable one choppy great stable one is the configuration that we were hoping for stable one means it's in the ocean upright and as expected the teams have been uh ready and waiting about three nautical miles away and dragon please repeat yeah we're going to raise our visors if you get that hey go for advisor raise so it looks like the astronauts inside are going to be lifting those visors the recovery team has been uh waiting about three nautical miles away so it is going to take them a little bit of time to make their way to shane megan aki and toma inside of dragon quick rundown of what is to come so about a minute and a half after a splashdown mission control here in hawthorne will give the go for safe approach about two minutes away two minutes from splashdown the approachable begins its inspection we are expecting that um ordnance and hyperglow check to complete around the l plus 12 minute mark around the l plus 30 minute mark dragon spacex come check endeavor has you loud and clear spacex we have it loud and clear as well we stopped the boat we have it much better now so some good comms checks uh on screen right now that is the dragon capsule in the background uh upright and stable in the gulf of uh mexico and uh there's a boat that is heading towards it so um at about l plus 30 minutes uh the dragon rigging will be is expected to complete again rigging is where um a employee as part of the recovery team will physically climb on top of dragon and attach hardware necessary to hoist dragon up and out of the water recovery ships also arrive at this time at l plus 38 minutes that's when we're expecting to lift dragon out of the water uh l plus 40 minutes dragon will be on deck of the recovery vessel and then at l plus 48 minutes we are expecting dragon hatch to open and the crew to egress after about six months in space that is the goal to do this in under an hour and it seems like the the crew is right where they're supposed to be right on time we're getting thermal images of the fast boats out near the crew dragon endeavour in the wonderfully smooth waters of the gulf of mexico as predicted which is fantastic you can see there's two boats that are out towards the recovery vessel once we get a smoother lock on the vehicle itself one of them collecting the parachutes uh the other uh doing some of the rigging that you were talking about andy which is uh super critical to the next series of steps dragon spacex's go for recovery personnel to approach expect personnel alongside momentarily okay top of that we're ready so we should see one of the fast boats go out really right next to the capsule and uh andy you were describing this a little bit earlier we'll see some personnel climb on board that rigging equipment is hardware that they have on board and they have to attach certain things to certain areas because the recovery vessel itself the go navigator uh is also moving out too check in spacex request permission to come on board via display cam only you're welcome on board on the display cam spacex we copy thanks shane so the teams here in mission control hawthorne will get a peek inside the vehicle itself watching over their shoulder the the crew themselves really are just in a waiting position their seats were rotated for shoot deployment and for splashdown so they're in a slightly more upright position although they're not completely upright it just helps to help them to brace uh you heard that a couple of times over the dragon the ground calls brace for those shoot deployments and for the splashdown itself but really they're in just a waiting posture at this point as the recovery teams do their job it'll take the go navigator recovery vessel which we're getting some of the images from right now the thermal images it takes it quite a bit to get out to the capsule itself about 30 minutes but which is why we have the fast boats fat's boat's doing a lot of the uh work ahead of time to prepare it so that really when the go navigator arrives right next to the spacecraft it is ready to hoist onto the recovery vessel and onto the dragon nest you can see that each of the boats are outfitted with uh spotlights to make sure that they can again do all their functions uh properly as this is a nighttime recovery out on the east coast but it looks like they have plenty of lighting and this is the second time that this particular capsule has landed right um so this this capsule endeavor was used as part of the demonstration 2 mission last year flying bob and doug and it has splashed down and been recovered once before so this is not its first rodeo really a testament to the capability of these american spacecraft that are rotating crews to and from the international space station as part of these expeditions it is truly an international team from the camera views that you're seeing right now uh on board the go navigator is uh teams representing nasa spacex european space agency and the japanese uh exploration uh japan aerospace exploration agency all of them on board uh truly an international uh government and commercial joint effort to make something like this possible um this is this is the um first fast boat um right now it is uh base essentially doing safety checks uh making sure that ordinances and hypergals are uh still not persisting in the area immediately around the vehicle they're also doing um essentially a an inspection of the capsule itself to make sure that integrity wise it is good uh before we start to again rig the equipments for hoisting later on tonight so again it's it's going to take some time we're shooting for less than an hour to bring the dragon endeavor onto the recovery ship and to open up the hatches and egress the crew or take them out and bring them onto the medical facilities i can only imagine the views that were possible from right there in the gulf of mexico let's see we do have a call-in from leah cheshire nasa communications who's on the go navigator recovery ship and was able to uh witness the re-entry and splashdown of crew dragon endeavor leah if you can hear me tell us about your experience in witnessing dragon endeavor splash down bringing a crew home from the international space station for the second time gary i can only i can hardly explain how amazing that experience has been right now as you said i'm on go navigator right now i'm looking forward to the fast food expo towards the spacecraft um we were standing on top of the helipad where we just landed at about 9 00 pm central third 9pm eastern time and we stood back to the helipad watching the crew members sweep through the atmosphere it truly looked like a meteor and actually at the exact same time we fought into crew members we did see a meteorite in the sky so it was an incredible moment and i was standing next to nasa astronaut shannon walker who she herself just completed this journey six or seven months ago as a member of the crew one spacecraft and submission and so it's it's been an incredible night here on going out of here we can't ask for better conditions if uh wonderful temperatures the seat is very smooth and glassy almost and so uh things are just moving really smoothly here and teams are are exiting everything at the start off leah tell me what's uh happening as you are witnessing it uh you mentioned landing uh uh not too long ago about an hour and a half ago on the recovery ship tell me what the teams have been doing we witnessed the back end of that with the recovery boats deployed uh what's been happening in preparation from your perspective uh to get ready for this moment well we saw the bath boats and the jet skis pull up next to us uh free mira as we waited for the castle to re-enter the water and i actually have a very good visual of the castle right now um sometimes there's been several people on the ship um just making sure that all of the hydraulics and everything are ready to go to lift crew dragon up into a nest that is on backup and you'll see that as it's pulled for the platform that they will egress uh they'll then move into medical checks so these all the team members here on the boat dragon spacex forester tonight on the helicopters and uh they are ready to jump in go ahead for status update hypergol sweeps and unfired ordinance checks are nominal rigging is in progress approximately two five minutes until capsule lift stand by for a pmc as our next step copy two five minutes before lift and standing by for pmc all right we're hearing private medical conference coming up for all right and we're hearing those uh the the crew sounding healthy from from inside crew dragon endeavor walking through the final steps getting a private medical conference leah one more question before we let you go and witness some of the next uh series of events of course we're going to be following all along the way but after the crew enters into the go navigator vessel and does those medical checks what are the next steps to get the crew home either in houston or in the european space agency it is an incredibly excellent process so the crew members after they've completed those medical checks they will board a helicopter right here on the boat uh within just a couple of hours of flashing down and plus that uh a little board and that's the judge which will take this left you just back to their retentive little especially those families and their mission on the international space station uh everything is moving off and i cannot wait to have leah cheshire nasa communications thank you for joining us and telling us a little bit about uh what's happening there at the recovery site best of luck to you all right that was leah cheshire on board the uh go navigator recovery vessel now heading back uh to inside the crew dragon we're getting those views right over the shoulder the crew standing by helmet visors up really just in a waiting posture as we're waiting for the fast boats and the teams out there to rig the crew dragon endeavor with the proper equipment to hoist it the capsule itself up onto the go navigator spacecraft where you just heard uh leah cheshire and the remaining recovery teams uh are waiting uh for of course the series of medical checks and and of course the personnel representing each of the space agencies nasa european space agency jaxa as well as spacex so again as expected crew dragon endeavour splashing down off the coast of pensacola florida right on time 7 33 p.m pacific time 10 33 p.m eastern standard time an incredible journey we got a fly around of the international space station documenting the exterior of the orbiting complex with digital photographs the first time we've done that since 2018 with a soyuz survey that was done a lot of elements of the space station have been added since so we'll be able to document that and check on the status of areas that can't normally be seen by some of the exterior cameras as well as the robotic arm you see we are getting views from inside capsule endeavour the crew really just poised seated with their seats rotated slightly upright you can see they still have uh access to some of the paces for status update go ahead boat's turned around and making its final approach to you just a couple hundred meters off just checking in to see if ready for that pmc we are ready for the cmc all right and work uh next person you hear from should be a no so we just got updates that the recovery vessel is uh just a couple hundred meters away from the dragon capsule um and they are gearing up for the pmc which stands for private medical conference the flight surgeon will check in with each of the crew members to make sure um they are doing well as they have just returned back to earth after 199 days in space right now this is a view of the back side of the recovery vessel that is essentially a crane the bottom middle section is the platform or nest where the dragon will be hoisted up and placed upon and that platform actually will move um towards the center of the boat uh into essentially a platform where the astronauts can uh step off of and so um again the the boat is is backing up towards the dragon cap so you can see it in the background there and um it'll uh hook up all of its lines to the rigging equipment that the rigger is currently attaching on the spacecraft and we'll hoist it up and get it on top of the recovery vessel we are not too far away from the dragon spacecraft it's right off of the aft end of the recovery vessel itself so right as expected it was about uh it was expected to be a 30 minute transition spacex i'm back with you yeah about a 30 minute transit and they got there in 20. i think a big part of of this is you look at the seas right now and there's effectively no movement gary leah described it witnessing it firsthand it is glass-like pristine which makes really for the recovery operations just that much easier really one of the very critical reasons why we are in an indirect handover posture again the crew two astronauts landing in the gulf of mexico before crew 3 launched it was really for for this reason it was because the weather at this moment in time was predicted to be as smooth and as fantastic as the weather predictions forecasted so again the crew is uh had a private medical conference that was an initial assessment before uh the docs on board have access to pull them out of the spacecraft they have a pretty good idea of what to expect whenever they pull them out so they'll know the the right uh precautions to take and what's needed for each individual crew member that of course privatized because of the medical reasons but that is why we have medical personnel on board the recovery spacecraft medical facilities on board i'm sorry not the recovery spacecraft the recovery vessel and meta medical facilities there as well uh and of course it'll be a time for the docs to do those initial checks before they what's anticipated will fly each of the crew members out on a hilo back to back to shore where there are planes staged for them to bring them back home it's not going to be a very long transit at all until we have some crew members uh back home uh shane uh kimbrough megan mcarthur aki hoshide all planned to go on a nasa plane back to houston the land and ellington field not too far away from the johnson space center there where they'll get to meet up with their family and friends of course tomah pesquet will board a separate plane and head over to europe for the facilities over at the european space agency to do something similar so we're continuing to provide coverage uh even though the crude dragon and the and the crew inside have splashed down safely in the gulf of mexico at uh right on time 7 30 3 p.m pacific 10 33 p.m eastern will continue to provide coverage until they egress or exit from the spacecraft itself and once all four crew members are on board we're expecting to get some calls from representatives of each of the space agencies of the astronauts that are on board crew dragon endeavor now nasa uh jackson and issa all calling in to provide some remarks after a successful mission and return of all four crew members back to planet earth and this here is a live view inside of the dragon capsule the crew members are inside and and really gary as you mentioned they are just uh waiting for the recovery team to do their job hoist the dragon out of the water before they can egress the vehicle from this view inside crew dragon endeavor over on the right side megan mcarthur the pilot for the crew tube mission you can see that little black antenna sticking out from her seat she's on a satellite phone right now talking with the teams over in mission control houston getting confirmation that everyone's saying hi to the crew checking in sounds like they're doing very well if you remember back in uh the demo two mission it was a test mission for using crew dragon endeavor but really to verify that the spacex crew dragon was ready to carry crews as part of regular crew rotation missions to and from the international space station as part of that they used the satellite phone as one of the checks and measures to ensure that the crew had the capability to use the satellite phone to call the various teams and report statuses it was really a precaution and one of the test objectives of the mission itself now continuing that here on crew 2. so and now the recovery vessel is that much closer to the dragon capsule dragon spacex for status update go ahead breaking is complete or approximately five minutes until capsule left copy so you can see the person that is on the capsule itself that is the rigor they uh we just got confirmation that the rigging has been completed uh now they are essentially um securing the the dragon capsule to all the rigging hardware that was attached to safely lift it up and out of the water and onto the recovery vessel and we're seeing motion of the a-frame now getting into position the rigor making the final attachments necessary if memory serves me right from previous recovery missions the rigor will uh jump off the capsule into the water uh and make his way back into the recovery or into one of the fast boats after he's done with this work dragon spacex praise for capsule lift there he goes as expected jumped into the water his job complete attaching the uh all of the connection points to crew dragon endeavor making sure that it is stable as the a-frame itself using hydraulic lifts hoists crew dragon endeavor out of the water onto that circular frame there you see at the base of uh the ship that is the dragon nest and gary we are uh in a in in a slightly ahead of schedule we were expecting dragon lift to begin at l plus 38 minutes it is l plus 30 minutes now so things things continuing to go smoothly as part of crew 2's return and recovery seem to get better and more efficient with each mission oh dragon welcome aboard the recovery vessel personnel are completing final checks stand by for translation to the egress platform kathy glad ready for congratulations all right with that we have confirmation that uh crew dragon endeavor is on the dragon nest it has been hoisted from the gulf of mexico and put onto the recovery ship where you saw the dragon be gently placed is called the dragon nest that whole section of the ship will be translated or moved in further into the ship to allow access to the side hatch that'll be the next very important critical series of steps there's personnel there that will um work on the hatch to eventually open it it'll be open for the first time in 199 days uh and we'll get the first uh glimpses of the crew inside we should be able to witness the egress operations as well each of the crew members getting out as long as the feeds permit so we can welcome each of them inside okay [Music] [Music] so so for this for those of you just joining us the dragon capsule has been lifted up and out of the water and is on the recovery vessel we just saw a few shots of the crew on board the ship uh what they're doing is securing the dragon onto the ship to make sure it doesn't move as again it's being translated or or moved towards the egress platform where the side hatch will be opened and the crew inside can egress the vehicle the shot you see on screen right now is a view inside it's a live shot of the of inside the capsule on the left-hand side that is uh commander shane kimbrough and to the right of him is pilot megan mcarthur what you don't see on screen is to the right of megan macarthur is mission specialist thomas pesquet and to the left of shane kimbrough is mission specialist aki hoshide they've had about an eight hour journey from undocking from the international space station and now they're on their car standby for translation to egress platform kathy we're ready there's that translation here still getting views from inside crew dragon endeavour this is spectacular we're less than 40 minutes after the dragon itself splashed down in the gulf of mexico for the second time now just again less than 40 minutes later the crew has been hoisted onto the recovery ship and the dragon nest itself has been translated over to the egress platform the next series of steps will be personnel on the recovery vessel that are specialized in opening up that side hatch we'll do so we have medical doctors on board that will uh take care of them after that they'll provide initial medical care and assessment uh egressing the crew from uh outside the dragon and putting them into medical facilities that are on board to conduct a series of initial checks uh before they are flown by helicopter back to shore the recovery vessel takes uh quite a bit of time to get back to shore so they'll be flown so they can get right on an aircraft and fly home uh within a very short period of time again we're going to provide continuous coverage until all crew members have egressed the vehicle and we also have representatives of nasa jaxa and esa that are scheduled to be on the line to provide a comments of a successful mission after the crew successfully splashed down egressed and are safe on board the recovery vessel dragon stand by for side hatch opening an egress next call will be from the recovery team critique congratulations control send it off hey thanks again kristy and your team we'll see you guys soon side hatch is open you see the waves coming out even from inside dragon now we're seeing some of the recovery personnel the first humans that these crew members have seen on planet earth for 199 days so i believe the recovery team is checking in with the crews to make sure they're all doing fine there are we actually have to remove the foot rest underneath the seats um prior to the crew getting out it just makes it a little bit easier for them to egress the vehicle with that out of the way we're on a great timeline right now just 40 minutes after splashing down in the gulf of mexico the side hatch is open and there are teams inside crew dragon endeavor that is a pretty quick recovery not bad five views inside endeavor wonderful getting all four crew members thumbs up they are feeling good live streamed from on the recovery boat spectacular so you can see some more of the footrests are coming out of the vehicle and once all those are removed we are expecting the crew to egress one at a time yes so so so if you are just joining us uh left hand side of the screen that is the view from inside of the dragon capsule it has been recovered out of the water and it's currently on the recovery vessel the side hatch is open as you can see on the right hand side of the screen the recovery team are continuing to do some more checkouts and procedures before we start to see the crew 2 astronauts egress the dragon capsule foreign still standing by for the egress of the four astronauts of crew two outside of crew dragon endeavor you can see stationed over to the left there is a stretcher part of the nominal procedure once they are egressed from the vehicle they'll be put into the stretcher and taken over to medical facilities this is a standard precaution that's been exercised for each of the crew recovery missions so far the first crew member being egressed from crew dragon endeavor got witnessed some applause there from some of the recovery personnel as well it's hard to tell which crew member that was and we got confirmation that was megan mcarthur uh that was the pilot of the crew to mission the first crew member egrest from inside crew dragon endeavor [Music] so foreign next out is uh commander shane kimbrough outside of crew dragon endeavor being translated over to the stretcher per nominal procedure waves smiles on his face a fantastic journey 199 days in space splashing down on time good morning and here comes the third member to egress the capsule this is aki hoshide some fist bumps and smiles from aki again after 199 days in space returns to earth all crew members flashing the peace sign for crew two i love it and that leaves one more member inside of dragon that is toma pesque of the european space agency and here comes tomah that's the easter dock on board checking in with uh tremopascay there you go everybody flashing the crew i love it so that is all four members of the crew 2 team safely uh on a boat i was gonna say on land for a second but they're on a boat uh and they will um head to all their respective um uh places they need to go but uh what a great uh recovery we we talked about how things were going to speed up and get more exciting and that recovery was one of the fastest i've ever seen it was spectacular i mean uh you couldn't have asked for a better mission we accomplished everything and everything on time undocking right at 1105 a.m earlier today we did a fly around of the international space station went super smoothly got some fantastic views even on our coverage all along the way all of the burns performed as expected we did have an out of plane burn as well that was introduced just to make sure we were on the right course but it set us up right for that deorbit burn on time and uh lo and behold as soon as we got out of that blackout period uh even a little bit before from the wb 57 that those views of the streak that was the plasma building up on the outside of the spacecraft we saw that we saw all the all great shoots drogue shoots main shoots all deploy with the infrared cameras and lands on a glassy gulf of mexico the waves were perfect incredible wind speeds and the recovery operations went super smooth all in all a fantastic mission so we'll stand by we're going to continue our coverage here for just a little bit all of us all of the crew members have uh uh egressed and are on the recovery uh boats but we're gonna stand by we're hoping to uh hear from some representatives from each of the respective space agencies nasa esa and jaxa uh and we'll just stand by and make a connection with them soon yeah so it was great to see all four members again despite uh 199 days in space and coming back to earth they came out of the capsule with smiles thumbs up fist bumps and so they are definitely in good spirits and that is always great to see so a little bit about what's to come um so again we'll continue our coverage and uh hope to hear some remarks from some of the uh from the representatives of each of the space agencies uh but right now each of the four crew members are on the go navigator recovery vessel they're going into some of the medical facilities that are on board and they'll have doctors on board that are able to check them out and do an initial medical assessment making sure that they're good to go they're not going to remain on go navigator for the entire trip back they actually have helicopters that are staged uh ready to take them off there's a helipad on the recovery vessel itself uh so that helicopter will take them back over to shore where they have planes that are staged at shore ready to take them back to respective locations for shane megan and aki they'll head back to houston and they'll do some additional medical assessments some additional tests they'll get to see their family they're going to go home in just a couple of short days they'll be working out they'll be in the uh um they'll be in the gym getting reconditioned back to four 1g for life on earth tomate will head over to europe to do the same thing over at the facilities over at the european space agency and that will be a wrap for the crew 2 mission yeah so they still have i love ways to go um after egressing the the dragon capsule but it looks like everything again going smoothly um especially as part of this broadcast again you had mentioned gary everything that was on the to-do list today has been done and has been done on time and and very smoothly wonderful so uh we do have some representatives from uh agencies online right now calling in uh to make some comments on behalf of the agency first uh we do have kathy leaders who is the associate administrator for space operations uh here at nasa kathy if you can hear me your initial thoughts now that uh crew 2 has safely returned to earth after 199 days and what it means to nasa as a space agency well i'm always amazed i can hold my breath for those last 10 minutes of reentry you know i mean that is high drama right there and like you mentioned several times seeing those shoots come out is just an amazing thing it is so nice to see that our spacex crew 2 astronauts are have safely splashed down in the gulf of mexico off the coast of florida aboard the crew dragon endeavor spacecraft and we've now completed the agency's second long duration commercial crew mission to the international space station and what's it's been such a busy but exciting time aboard the station and which is really our home in microgravity you know i'm so proud of the nasa and the spacex team for another successful return they continue to show that amazing amount of dedication to each phase of the mission and and just safely and methodically moving forward and conducting the mission it's just amazing you know we originally were planning to launch our crew 3 mission for a short overlap on station with crew 2 but you know we ended up bringing crew 2 home first the team really carefully balanced each decision and as we looked at which was the safer opportunity we decided to bring the crew home first given the weather conditions and as you can see tonight they were great like people said it was like a lake out there a very calm lake so this was the best decision we could have made and it was just great to see the crew exiting that spacecraft this evening you know as you folks have talked about the mission set a record for the longest space flight by a u.s crude spacecraft the crew members are actually in their 200th fight flight day even though they and they did complete 199 full days in orbit which surpassed the 168 days set by spacex's crew on mission earlier this year not that any of those crew members count the crew 2 mission you know launched april 23rd on a falcon 9 rocket from nasa's kennedy space center and and then docked to the harmony modules forward port of the space station on april 24th nearly 24 hours after liftoff you know the the crew 2 mission has traveled over 84 million miles during the mission while their stay on orbit and completed over 3 000 orbits around the earth and during their time on orbit they have contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities scientific investigations technology demonstrations and multiple public engagement efforts while aborting the onboard the iss vehicle they've studied how gaseous flames behave in microgravity and one of my favorites as an ex-new mexico person grew hatch green chiles in the station's plant habitat facility and eight space tacos they installed brief line robotic assistance and even donned virtual reality goggles to test new methods of exercising in space among many other scientific activities and the astronauts took hundreds of pictures of earth as part of the crew earth observation investigation which was one of the longest running investigations aboard the space station which contributes to tracking of natural disasters and changes to our home planet and most importantly they did that fly around on the way home to have us check out the state of the iss one more time they conducted four spacewalks to install deploy and otherwise prepare for installation of our new iss rollout solar rays and they also saw the arrival of seven spacecraft at the space station and seven spacecraft departing during their six-month stay station is the hub up there our international hub so this splashdown of pu2 comes just before the launch of nasa's spacex crew 3 mission i the the return looked spotless i know folks will be wondering about that one lagging main parachute and the team will be going off and and looking at you know how the loading was on the chutes and understanding that behavior it is behavior we've seen multiple times in other tests and usually happens when the lines kind of bunch up together until the arrow forces kind of open up and and spread the shoots and the the thing that makes me feel a little bit more confident is that the loading and the deceleration of the spacecraft all looked nominal for us which is good news but we're making this an exciting week for us and you know one of the key things we'll be doing on our launch readiness review for the crew 3 mission coming up we'll be working through that that launch readiness review is tomorrow at starting at 7 pm and my uh ocon colleagues would be kicking me under the desk right now if i didn't tell everybody we'll be doing a post launch readiness review press conference tomorrow evening at 9 30 pm eastern time so once again thank you for watching i can't tell you how excited i am to see all four of the crew members back on earth and i'm looking forward to launching another set of four this week thank you thank you so much kathy leaders uh associate administrator for space operations here at nasa we also have on the line hiroshi sasaki vice president and director general for the human space flight technology directorate at jaxa mr sasaki your thoughts on the successful return and the completion of the crew 2 mission thank you for the introductions uh first of all on vr jaxa i'd like to express my heartfelt thanks to the nasa leadership spacex our international partners isa csa roscosmos and all the colleagues who have devoted to the successful mission while overcoming the tough time under copied 19. i'm really relieved that all the crew members came back home safely to us and i do believe they have brought tremendous courage and hopes for all of us through this successful mission served as the commander and led the expansion 65 and 66 missions over five months during his novice day succeeding astronaut soi technology accurate completed his eba with issa astronomer tomapesky and contributed to the upgrade of the iss including the installers of mlm arc and the entire team faced various challenges during their stay and they have overcome with great communication among the crew members and with ground team it proves us again with the importance of teamwork and international cooperations i'm also pleased that we jaxa along with aki have conducted worse activities to promote space exploration basic research as well as commercialization of laura's orbit every time we see a successful mission like this we are getting one step closer to achieve our common goals towards space exploration using the gateway and on the lunar surface and also bringing further benefits to rs through the utilization by the iss next fall jaxa astronaut koichi wakata will be on board the crew 5 followed by satoshi furukawa's long stay mission in the coming years i hope that the aki's experience will be succeeded to contribute to our endeavors towards space exploration and human space flight once again congratulations up to all of you the savory time and wishing the successful launch of clue three thank you thank you so much thank you so much hiroshi sasaki vice president and director general for the human space flight technology directed directorate at jaxa uh so that uh will do it for us that is the comments that we have from the respective agencies thank you so much for calling in and providing those comments well now that shane megan aki and tamar are safely back on planet earth and getting checked out by nasa medical teams and of course teams from the respective international agencies we are going to wrap up our live coverage of their historic return this all kicked off on april 23 2021 from historic launch pad 39a at kennedy space center in florida after a successful liftoff and separation from falcon 9 shane megan aki and tomah made a 24-hour flight on board dragon to the international space station since arriving at the space station they spent nearly six months as members of expedition 65 and 66 executing science experiments space walks and repairs while aboard the orbiting laboratory and then their journey home began earlier today on the 8th when they closed the hatch to dragon and undock hours later at 11 05 a.m pacific time after four successful departure burns and a phasing burn to line up their orbit shane megan aki and tomah rested for a few hours before waking up to prepare for re-entry this uh this evening we um excuse me they didn't rest uh they they went straight to uh they had a meal they had a meal basically and donned their spacesuits uh we then jettisoned the trunks the dragon's trunk and performed our final on orbit maneuver the d over burn at 6 39 pm pacific time send dragon on the path home the spacecraft re-entered the earth's atmosphere and slowed its descent with successful deployments of two drogue parachutes and four mains with the final splashdown occurring off the coast of pensacola florida at 7 33 pm pacific time now following successful splashdown we saw spacex recovery experts move in and prepare dragon endeavor for its liftoff uh for its lift onto the recovery vessel in just a little less than an hour following splashdown we saw shane megan aki and tomah make their way out of the dragon and into the recovery ship's medic facilities safe and sound so they're on the recovery vessel right now next they'll catch a helicopter flight back to shore while they're transferred to aircraft that will take them home shane megan and aki will take a nasa plane for a short flight back to houston and tomah will fly back to europe they'll be reunited with their families and then bring this historic flight to an end it has been an honor and a privilege to share their journey with you all as we continue this new era in human space flight but we have more coming up soon that is right uh spacex and nasa are already looking forward to the next mission when crew 3 launches currently targeted just a few days from now on november 10th we'll have an indirect handover with three people on board the station for a short period of time as we continue this regular cadence of flying astronauts on american rockets from the kennedy space center again it has been encouraging an incredible honor gary and joy to share this mission with public and all the teams from spacex and nasa continue to work hard to keep america leading the world in human space flight continue to follow spacex and nasa online and on social media for updates for the very latest on crew and cargo fights to and from the international space station and we'll continue to share the progress of shane megan aki and tomorrow as they travel back home on social media so we'll say thanks once more for tuning in and cheering on shane megan aki and tomas as they return home and we'll see you again very soon when we'll once again be sending astronauts to the international space station from american soil on nasa spacex crew 3 mission until then so long [Music] you

Channel: SpaceX

Views: 1,181,026

Keywords: SpaceX, Space, Musk, Mission, NASA, International Space Station, Crew-2, Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide, Thomas Pesquet, Dragon

Id: KmMPsrUC-LY

Length: 177min 46sec (10666 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 09 2021