NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 Mission Splashes Down

professionals and dragon technicians to secure the capsule and get the crew out quickly and safely and our fun fist history fact for this return this will be the first night splashdown of a u.s crude spacecraft since apollo 8's pre-dawn return in the pacific ocean on december 27 1968 with nasa astronauts frank gorman gem level and bill anders so in the next phase of the mission dragon has a series of steps to complete before returning mike victor shannon and soichi home first dragon will maneuver to the correct attitude and then start to separate its claw then the jettison is trunk which is the cylindrical unpressurized part of the spacecraft the trunk is currently connected to the aft or bottom section of the dragon capsule where the heat shield is located so in order to expose the 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 the burn will last more than 16 minutes once it starts and to prepare for these upcoming events right now the dragon capsule is doing a number of things autonomously it's isolating the thermal control system fluid loops from the radiator this system is what will help keep the internal temperature of dragon uh for uh for mike victor shannon and suici nice and cool during re-entry a dragon is also initiating separation of the claw mechanism which will terminate data power and fluid connections between the capsule and the trunk and i'm receiving information that claw separation is currently occurring right on time and that was scheduled for 10 57 pacific so right on time for that claw separation coming up next will be trunk separation very shortly after and i'm sure we will hear a clock call out to the crew shortly about our claw separation yeah over the next hour um there's going to be a lot of events happening in order to get the dragon spacecraft in spacex we showed nominal trunk jettison and spacex uh from resilience we see the same and you could definitely feel the claw step as well as hear it and the same for trunk jettison uh was very obvious and through the centerline cameras you could definitely see a lot of the debris from the separation hey thanks resilience for that thorough report we copy all cool so there's some report outs from the crew about what they felt when the claw had separated as well as the trunk as it was jettisoned and we did get confirmation that both occurred nominally meaning that telemetry is looking good the nitrox system is primed for cabin and suit cooling and the heat shield is exposed ready for atmospheric re-entry up next we have the final steps that dragon will perform prior to re-entry the slew or maneuver to de-orbit burn attitude and a deep orbit burn itself this is again the last time that the four dracos which are the four thrusters located at the top of the vehicle uh the last time that they will ignite the dew orbit burn will place dragon on a precise trajectory to return to the splashdown zone off the coast of panama city florida and will last a bit more than 66. it looks like we're on to nominal comms for the rest of the mission at this point that's good news uh thanks for watching and good news indeed as we were mentioning we're tracking some issues with one of the tdrs tracking data and relay satellite system satellites that was preventing us from getting some communication from the vehicle at certain points in their orbit however that seems to have cleared up and next we are looking for deorbit burn to begin in just about three minutes as we mentioned that should last almost 16 and a half minutes and that is the breaking maneuver that's going to drop dragon out of earth orbit and bring them back into the atmosphere so things are really speeding up with that nominal claw separation and trunk jettison and they reported some similar things that we heard from bob bankin and doug hurley mentioning that it was something you could definitely feel jettisoning that trunk so very interesting and uh and good news that everything still continues to uh to look well and things look pretty good on earth here too this is a view from the go navigator recovery ship and off to the left that is indeed a dolphin who is checking out the operations as go navigator begins to move into place uh to recover crude or crew dragon once they splash down tonight so uh beautiful things in space and on earth it seems like we're not the only ones interested in the astronauts return maybe aside from medical staff they might get a greeting from some marine animals as well that is a very very cool picture of those dolphins again just a few minutes away from the beginning of that 16 minute deorbit burn we just had trunk separation and a couple of things about the trunk separation earlier in the night we formed a prop wasting burn to get rid of unneeded propellants we shed about 80 to 90 kilograms worth of propellant and to lighten the load that dragon will be experiencing when it comes back to earth and this is an incredible shot right now we have of the separation uh that is crew dragon and it's trunk now separate flying free and we are just moments away from hearing the beginning of the deorbit burn and as as i was talking the um the trunk itself and as well as the propellant used in this deorbit burn once all is said and done we'll be shedding about 6 000 pounds of mass from the dragon spacecraft so starting off at around 27 000 pounds all going down to about 21 000 pounds so those help to again lessen the load that the parachutes will have to sort of carry when they deploy and eventually slow down the spacecraft this is just absolutely an incredible view and this is coming to us from the international space station so they do still have a little bit of an eye on dragon once crew dragon begins that re-entry period following the deorbit burn completion we hope to have infrared imagery thanks to the wv57 aircraft that has departed from ellington and is in the proper location and they have thermal imagery systems aboard fingers crossed we get some visuals of crude dragon re-entering the earth's atmosphere and right on time we also have the start of the deorbit burn as we mentioned this should last 16 minutes 26 seconds so this has fully committed a crew dragon to coming home so just within the last 10 minutes crew dragon jettisoned its trunk and initiated this deorbit burn just a minute ago and like we mentioned earlier this deorbit burn is the last time those four forward draco thrusters will fire dragon resilience has not yet entered the earth's atmosphere this deorbit burn is what will line the vehicle up and put it on a final trajectory to the landing site in the gulf of mexico just off the coast of panama city florida there is a beautiful shot of the crew inside that is commander mike hopkins closes closest to your screen and next to him is victor glover the pilot and on the screens that those are the thrusters firing uh as we mentioned we are in the midst of the de-orbit burn right now and they are monitoring so this is an amazing opportunity to get to see the inside of the cabin at this point we just had that view from the international space station of crew dragon in the trunk having recently separated and this is uh these are the four crew members who are currently inside and they're committed to coming home they're using the screens to keep tabs on the burn duration uh the draco thrusters firing and trajectory details like entry angle capsule perigee and how much distance remaining until de-orbit burn termination a dragon is flying itself so all the crew has to do is stay strapped in their seats and enjoy the flight and they're just keeping tabs on things using those touch screen display monitors so it's been about two minutes since the burn began we are in the entry descent and landing phase of the mission this is the largest burn of the evening and as we mentioned this really commits us to splashing down specifically at that panama city location just off the coast and we were monitoring weather all the way until the point of deorbit burn because uh you know in the event that the weather shifted or we needed to potentially target a different site uh this d orbit burn wouldn't have begun but now uh likely mentioned we are committed and we'll be um looking forward to the splashdown of not only the capsule but the crew members as well and that deorbit burn should end at 11 19 p.m pacific time uh following that we will close the nose cone a few minutes later the nose cone is open right now because as you can see in those uh screens those four thrusters firing are the four bulkhead thrusters and they are located underneath the nose cone so we leave the nose cone open right now for the 16 and a half minute burn and we will close it once that is complete three and a half minutes into the burn continuing to monitor the data and continuing to get these great views from inside the cabin we won't keep these views for the entire return home as we mentioned once crew dragon really begins its entry into the earth's atmosphere we anticipate a loss of signal for about seven minutes where we won't be able to receive telemetry or data or video audio from the crew dragon vehicle however crew dragon is entirely autonomous flying itself uh knows exactly what it needs and where it needs to go and so hopefully at that point the astronauts are just monitoring as well and the really the reason for that calms blackout is because plasma builds up on the outside of the capsule due to the uh the speed at which the vehicle is re-entering the earth's atmosphere and building up that heat to around 3500 degrees fahrenheit outside the capsule so a very very cool view right now on the left you've got from the international space station crew dragon and its trunk and on the right hand side the four astronauts who are inside that small white dot preparing to return to earth yeah the distance from the trunk and distance between the trunk and the crew dragon vehicle is continuing to get larger and larger and the deep orbit burn um does effectively what his name says um we're taking the vehicle out of orbit and lowering its altitude until eventually you know we make its way back to earth we're now five minutes into the orbit burn about 11 minutes left crew still monitoring and teams here in mission control hawthorne still monitoring as well this crew has been in space for about six months their journey started on november 15th of last year and now really they're on their last section before they can return back to earth and get that fresh air that we all love now that the deorbit burn has started we really are less than an hour away from splashing down we are expecting splashdown to occur at 11 57 p.m pacific time 6 57 gmt so really less than 5-0 minutes away as we mentioned here on the earth side of things everyone is in place on the go navigator vessel that needs to be there when the crew arrives two fast boats will approach the vehicle and ensure there are no toxic vapors from those hypergolic fumes that may be present after splashing down they will also uh begin rigging the vehicle and prepare it for to be hoisted into the nest on go navigator but ahead of all of that we also have the wb-57 aircraft from ellington field in houston texas that is in position and we will be awaiting views from the aircraft once uh crew dragon begins its re-entry into earth's atmosphere there's a thermal imaging camera on the aircraft that we hope to get some some views from and at the bottom of those touch screen displays you'll notice some buttons really important functions like shoot deploy or cutting the main shoots these have dedicated buttons for them otherwise the team can you know use a number of views to monitor the mission as they're doing right now hypergolic fuels or hypergolic propellants are pretty common for space propellants they are one of their properties is they don't require an ignition source so once uh two components are combined typically a fuel an oxidizer they will ignite um just by being in contact with one another and it is great for you know use in space but you know one of the downsizes uh they can be pretty toxic um to humans so that's why it's super important that when the spacecraft does land the first fast boat the first thing one of the first things they do is perform a sniff test to make sure that none of that toxic vapor is still in the vicinity so that way the other personnel can approach and continue with the rest of the recovery operations we're coming up on nine and a half minutes into this 16 and a half minute maneuver so approximately seven minutes left and everything is looking good crews still monitoring those thrusters in the screens on their displays this is the final burn of the day crew dragon as we said is now committed to splashing down off the coast of panama city florida tonight and a reminder of the astronauts that are coming home today they're closest to the screen is mike hawkins he's the commander and to his right is victor glover the pilot to victor glover's right is shannon walker and to mike hawkins left we have soichi naguchi an astronaut with the japan aerospace exploration agency so close to your screen is crew dragon commander mike hopkins a little bit about him he was born in lebanon missouri but grew up outside of rich richland missouri he was selected as an astronaut by nasa in 2009. hopkins is a colonel in the united states air force and holds degrees in aerospace engineering he also flew on the russian soyuz as a member of the expedition 38 and 37 and 38 crew logging at the time 166 days in space he performed two spacewalks totaling almost 13 hours to change out a degraded pump module on the space station uh he also has military experience including testing the c17 and c130 aircraft and those two spacewalks were from his previous mission he added to those while he was on the international space station during this flight added a couple more actually and the deorbit burn we are just about four and a half minutes away from that being complete things are still looking good and as a reminder this is a breaking maneuver so crew dragon is firing those thrusters into the same direction that it was traveling uh this should slow crew dragon down enough to drop it out of orbit so we are waiting on the deorbit burn to end and that should happen at approximately 11 19 p.m pacific time just a few minutes from now the astronauts on board are continuing to monitor the burns of the four ford bulkhead thrusters things have really picked up in the last 15 minutes or so the crew we had claw separation from the trunk and the capsule itself the claw connecting those thermal control or the thermal and avionics and data telemetry information between the crew capsule and the trunk and we had trunk jettison and some amazing shots there for a moment from the international speed station of both the trunk and crew dragon flying separately of one another and now we are in this deorbit burn now 14 minutes in meaning we only have about two and a half minutes left on this deorbit burn committing them to coming home to panama city or off the coast of panama city florida we are looking at splashdown at about uh 11 57 p.m pacific time so 40 minutes from now we will have these crew one astronauts back on planet earth and since that claw separation and jettison of the trunk the dragon spacecraft is running on internal battery power so everything that you see on screen is powered by batteries on the capsule itself and it's no longer drawing power from the trunk as you can see the astronauts still have their visors up on their suits that is fine for right now and they will need to lower those visors once it comes time for the re-entry of the capsule into the atmosphere so this deorbit burn is not the reentry itself we don't have those extreme temperatures building up on the outside of the vehicle right now that's why we still have telemetry and communications with the spacecraft but once we begin that re-entry they will close their visors we're still tracking this deorbit burn getting reports that the flight path angle is valid everything looking nominal for this burn we should have about one minute left and this the orbit burn is a breaking maneuver um after this we're sort of done with um any major burns uh the majority of speed reduction will be done by the atmosphere of the earth and then after that the parachutes that will deploy on the dragon spacecraft so again just a few seconds away from completing this you know long duration 16-minute burn and then we'll be answering the earth's atmosphere very shortly after that and we are seconds away from that call out as you saw we lost video with the crew uh that was one of those tracked loss of certain spacex we show the orbit burn is complete with nominal performance nose cone closure initiated and spacex from resilience we copy all that's great news and we're following those film closure and that is great news the d-orbit burn completed successfully and now we're moving on to nose cone closure in the background right now dragon is currently inhibiting those ford bulkhead thrusters that we just used to complete the deorbit burn ensuring it's safe to latch the nose cone shut for re-entry also the vehicle has initiated the nitrox suit purge this will help keep mike victor shannon and soichi cool and comfortable during the re-entry which is coming up in about 20 minutes and at this point the nose cone is closing and protecting the forward hatch for re-entry again the our astronauts are using their screens to monitor the locking of the nose cone which is done by a set of hooks so we are standing by for confirmation of nose cone closure we needed to wait until this point because we were using those forward bulkhead draco thrusters underneath the nose cone to complete that deorbit burn we did hear nominal deorbit burns so things continue to move very smoothly for crew dragon resilience on its way home from the international space station so anticipated nose cone closure should come in about one minute so this view here is mission control in hawthorne in california i have a whole team of folks supporting the astronauts return we are expecting a planned communication blackout period at 11 43 p.m pacific time again that is when we have a ton of plasma buildup at the bottom of the capsule it's going to start to interfere with some of the communications but that is planned and should last for about seven and a half minutes at that time the dragon spacecraft will continue to steer and pilot itself towards the targeted landing site of off the coast of panama city until we get those communications back and once again can talk to the astronauts and we just heard a call that nose cone closure is about 50 complete so that continues and we are tracking for that to be complete momentarily that nose cone protects the forward hatch that the astronauts use to ingress or enter and egress or exit the international space station and so it's important that we are able to protect that area for potential future reuse of this capsule so we are standing by for confirmation that knows the nose cone has fully closed the next major milestone we'll be looking for is the entry of the vehicle and and that anticipated loss of signal with the spacecraft entry of the vehicle should begin around 11 45 so about 23 minutes from now and we will be tracking the vehicle its entire way back even though we don't necessarily have telemetry with it and as those vehicles uh the vehicle starts to make its way back to earth the astronauts on board should experience um a max a peak of three to five g's um similar to what they would experience on ascent with the falcon 9. and then the drone shoots will deploy and the main shoots will also deploy after that and then we can start to begin recovery operations in this nighttime splashdown we are standing by for information about the nose cone closure and the nose cone is closed the forward hatch now being protected and those four forward bulkhead draco thrusters underneath so as we begin the second half of entry dragon is now beginning to flush nitrox into the cabin and continuing to top off mike victor shannon and soichi's suit with cold air again this is what will allow the cabin temperature to remain comfortable while external temperatures reach over 3500 degrees fahrenheit the heat shield is pointing forward the bottom so to speak of the capsule leading the capsule into the landing site and the suits themselves can detect if they start to get too warm and will automatically start drawing in that nitrox again to keep the astronauts nice and cool all the way down until splashdown so we have some time until that next major milestone as we discussed with the nosecone closed we'll be looking for that loss of signal that could come as early as 11 43 with our re-entry in earth's atmosphere at about 11 45 so 20 minutes from now mike victor shannon and soichi as we noticed they are monitoring the actions throughout this uh this procedure and they should be able to continue to do so throughout the splashdown of crude dragon they they shouldn't have to take any action dragon is a fully autonomous vehicle and so it can fly itself the crew can step in if necessary and command some movements of the vehicle and some other actions but um things have moved very smoothly throughout the day so far so we are looking at an on-time splashdown at 11 57 pm gm or 11 57 pm pacific time off the coast of panama city florida and hopefully along the way the astronauts will simply be able to monitor and we did get a weather report just a few minutes ago and weather continues to look great excellent if i may say wind speeds are very low and the height of the waves are also very low there's no rain in the area so really ideal conditions for splash down and recovery of the crew once they splash down there are a couple of boats that will step in to make sure that the area is safe there they'll collect the shoots and then there is a larger recovery vessel the same vessel that sort of took the picture of the dolphin earlier that will come up and scoop dragon out of the water hoist it using a crane on the back of the boat onto the deck and then we have a couple of checkout procedures to get through before we open up the hatch and medical staff can start to attend and evaluate how the astronauts are doing before they you know eventually get into the helicopter and start to make their way back towards land and uh we as we've mentioned we were initially looking at returning these astronauts on the wednesday the 28th having them undock from the international space station and then we looked at friday uh april 30th so just yesterday and we were really waiting on perfect weather conditions which is what we're seeing tonight and so just a little bit more about exactly what that means and what those parameters are like for us when we're considering splashdown locations we want the wind to be no greater than 10 and a half knots which is about 17 and .7 feet per second and the latest report that we have the wind is around two knots so very much within that range we'll need no lightning within or no less than 10 miles away or no more dragon spacex we show nose cones secure for entry and spacex from resilience we see the same and good news being relayed to the crew dragon crew that nose cone is closed uh but a little bit more about that recovery criteria we were talking about lightning we don't want that within the 10 mile radius and away or within the vehicle area as well as no more than 25 chance of rain we don't want any clouds lower than a 500 feet which means that's the cloud ceiling we don't want that any lower than 500 feet and we need at least a mile of visibility for a night splashdown so everything is really lining up perfectly for splashdown tonight and we are we are continuing to watch crew dragon execute all of the pre-programmed maneuvers uh the next major one now with the nose cone secured and all of those hooks secured uh we'll be looking for really re-entry and once the dragon spacecraft splashes down where we typically try to target about an hour before we can you know get in there recover the vessel and open up that hatch but it'll depend it'll depend on you know if there's any hypergolic vapors in the air how fast the boats can get to the capsule but you know certainly expediency is of the utmo utmost urgency for us so you know the the recovery team will certainly try their best to make sure the astronauts are in good safe hands and on the boat eventually the helicopter as soon as we can do so safely yeah and we hope to see the crew egress or exit dragon within an hour after splashing down which is really an impressive timeline and so um as soon as splashdown occurs those two fast boats will begin proceeding toward the vehicle they'll be sniffing for those hypergolic fuels we don't want any of those toxic fumes within the vicinity of the capsule and we will have one person go onto the capsule and begin to rig it or prepare it to be lifted out of the water and once the recovery ship backs up to the vehicle they can connect that to the ship and lift it onto the ship so and that all can happen within about a 30 minute time frame and uh it's things are really moving quickly now with the the start of entry descent and landing a lot of milestones happening so we hope that you'll stay tuned with us for all of those so the dragon spacecraft itself is uh now that it's completed it's deorbit burn its altitude it's starting to decrease and decrease and decrease where eventually it will start to meet the earth's atmosphere and once it does it's moving it was moving at over 17 500 miles an hour and so we'll start to eventually slow it down all the way to 16 miles an hour and that's generally the the rate at which the speed at which it will splash down in the ocean so much much softer than if it were to hit the water at 17 500 miles an hour now if you look closely in this picture that is still crew dragon that view from the international space station as we mentioned crew dragon has just completed its deorbit burn but that doesn't mean that it's out of space yet so pre-dragon is still in a microgravity environment and and continues to slow and drop into earth's atmosphere that's when our reentry period will really begin when we expect to also have that loss of communications andy was just discussing but right now still very exciting to be able to have this view from the international space station of crude dragon which just departed that command being sent six hours ago for those hooks to open on the nose cone uh and there's two short bursts to separate it from the international space station so a lot can happen in six hours as we've seen and a lot can also happen in 30 minutes because in that amount of time uh crew dragon will be back on earth and those uh sort of quick movements that is not crew dragon there it is that is not crew dragon moving in space that is uh the camera repositioning itself so uh crew dragon right now is really on a controlled sort of slow descent back towards earth but it is quite cool that the international space station can still and has been tracking crew dragon all the way since it separated earlier on today i'm taking a look at what the crew aboard the international space station is doing some of them are actually in their sleep period so they may be asleep right now and they they also maybe uh who knows up in the middle of the night and i'm sure some of them are very eager to make sure that they're um you know uh dragon spacex for entry brief and go for injury everything continues to look awesome so no updates to timing no updates for systems weather is uh winds at three knots wave height remains less than one foot a wave period still at five seconds recovery team reports in position ready to support okay no changes to timeline everything is looking good three knots on the wind less than a foot in five seconds on the period we're currently showing 220 and we're working through our entry brief and we'll give you a uh i go here momentarily okay spacex copies thank you you know as the folks on the crew capsule itself when your core calls you and says everything continues to look awesome uh that is probably the greatest of great news as the capsule is gearing up for re-entry into the earth's atmosphere and eventual splashdown here within the hour as i was mentioning earlier the crew on the international space station they might be up right now i'm sure they're very eager to see that see to make sure that their fellow crew members are safely back home on earth so you know they might be tuning in to make sure that you know everything goes smoothly before they you know head off to bed and uh meanwhile on earth this is the view that we had earlier from go navigator the recovery vessel that we'll see lift crew dragon out of the water later on they had another visitor uh you know outer space is a pretty amazing place to explore and i think the ocean is as well and so this is one of the local residents in the area of go navigator at the time go navigator has now moved closer to the location of splashdown and they will then move in once the vehicle has made contact with the water to then retrieve it yeah maybe that's a foreshadowing of the future zero g indicator we haven't had a marine animal find space yet so maybe the next one will be a dolphin that's not a bad idea this view right this view right now is again from the international space station that white dot in the center of your screen is the dragon capsule the um and the crew is inside there and uh we're continuing to adjust the cameras but it continues to make its way back towards earth and those cameras can be adjusted by teams on the ground in mission control houston so as you mentioned the the astronauts still on the international space station have the opportunity to be getting some sleep now they very well might be watching the coverage and we uh thank them as well for tuning in but um but yes just an amazing view for for us to get to see this image of crew dragon still in space counting down to that uh beginning of reentry it all happens very fast once that begins and we are looking for re-entry to begin at uh 11 45 so less than 10 minutes from now and spacex from resilience tablets are secured on the satchels restraints are tightened and visors are down spacex copies on tablets restraints and visors thank you the crew reporting to the core here that uh they are in the proper configuration for their deorbit their their re-entry essentially so their visors on their suits are now down and locked in place we saw them earlier during that orbit burn the visors were still up and they needed to be closed prior to the re-entry and so it sounds like everything is properly secured and stowed for that re-entry into earth's atmosphere as we mentioned we can expect the astronauts to feel about anywhere between three and five g's upon their re-entry all right we are under 20 minutes away from splashdown here's uh the rundown again of what to expect here in a in the next 20 minutes at 11 43 p.m pacific time we're going to enter that communications blackout period that will last for approximately seven and a half minutes um at 11 45 pm uh entry will begin that is where the capsule will enter the earth's atmosphere 11 52 pm the drogue shoots will deploy then less than a minute after that the main shoots will deploy slowing the dragon spacecraft down to 16 miles an hour then 11 57 pm pacific time we have splashdown of the crew one resilience capsule dragon spacex we show five minutes until predicted calm blackout we will see you on the other side at zero six five zero and spacex resilience copies we'll talk to you on the other side and there was that blackout period that i had mentioned earlier that is the core just confirming again the time and the expectation that there will be a hole period at approximately 11 43 p.m pacific time for seven and a half minutes again the dragon vehicle is autonomous and uh really steering itself at this point so even though communications can't be sent back and forth between dragon and ground the vehicle is uh really you know doing its own thing and making sure that it reaches the targeted landing site as intended we are four minutes away from that predicted loss of signal and this is something that occurs whenever we bring home crude spacecraft whether it be a crew dragon or a soyuz spacecraft their their re-entry into the earth's atmosphere looks very similar uh they both have a deorbit burn and they both slow down significantly upon re-entry into earth's atmosphere and that plasma buildup outside of the vehicle along with that heat that prevents us from having communications with the vehicle for several minutes this time we're looking at about seven minutes so it's something that we're very aware of and experienced with and something else we are just learning is crew dragon is about 140 kilometers in altitude so we continue to track its journey back to earth we are now what it looks like three minutes away from that anticipated los so elia and i will continue to be with you live not just uh until splashdown but afterwards as part of the recovery operations as well uh we want to make sure that the team is picked up out of the water and safe and sound on the go navigator boat before we sign off so we still got a bit of time here but we do have quite a bit of events coming up in the next hour and a half until the crew is you know safely back on earth and speaking of recovery that uh that leads into an ask or a launch america question that we have do any medical checkups happen after the return of crew one back on earth uh yes that's actually the first thing that happens once crew one returns and is hoisted onto the ship the first person inside the hatch will be a medical doctor that speaks with the crew and allows them to uh to let them know how they're feeling ahead of egress or being taken out of the vehicle and as soon as that happens they'll be moved in so for some further medical checks ahead of being flown back on a helicopter to shore in florida so that'll be the the first thing that happens safety of our crew and their health is our priority yeah and you know part of landing selection slides one of the criteria is we have to be close to medical facilities so you know everything is really planned around the safe uh the safety uh of the astronauts and make sure that they come back uh you know nice and healthy uh because they've had you know such um uh rigorous sort of time up in space you know being in microgravity and now returning back to earth and having to deal with the gravity uh down here and so likely i mentioned um you know medical staff will be one of the first people that speak to the astronauts as soon as they land here on earth we just heard that dragon is an entry attitude exactly where they need to be and for this targeted splash down off the coast of panama city florida we have that loss of signal that we predict to occur coming up in about one minute and we expect to see that last for about seven minutes hearing our attitude is approximately 108 kilometers above earth and as a reminder our four crew members mike hopkins victor glover shannon walker and suici all on board crew dragon returning home today they are monitoring this process and so they are well aware that we may lose communications with them as soon as within 30 seconds and we will speak with them once we are out of that comms blackout period again lasting about seven minutes today we're standing by for that loss under 100 kilometers in altitude and shortly after we begin that uh communications blackout period 11 45 pm pacific time that is when the spacecraft will enter the earth's atmosphere and begin you know sort of its final descent back to a splashdown altitude of crew dragon now at 90 kilometers and this view on the right hand side of your screen and mission control hawthorne here in california teams monitoring the vehicle and during this loss of signal point uh this communications blackout they they won't be able to get telemetry on the vehicle but crew dragon is totally autonomous so at this point we are entering that communications blackout period this will last approximately seven and a half minutes due to plasma formation around the spacecraft during this time no vehicle telemetry is received by mission control or the recovery team and no external commanding of the vehicle or voice communication is possible and just as a reminder dragon is designed to fly itself and continues to autonomously use draco thrusters to orient itself during re-entry during re-entry the vehicle will be slowing down from orbital velocity which is approximately 17 17 500 miles per hour and the top temperature around dragon that dragon will experience upon re-entry is about 3 500 degrees fahrenheit and of course inside the capsule will not get near that hot we expect the temperature to raise to about 85 degrees and the astronauts have cool air inside the vehicle as well as inside their suits uh and so we have just entered the time of entry interface so dragon is now experiencing uh the earth's atmosphere the for the first time in almost six months so we are continuing to uh be in this los period as we mentioned it should last about seven minutes and that began at 11 43 p.m pacific time so we have about four minutes left of that los period uh and the crew knows that we will be in communication with them on the other side and this has got to be the the period where if you followed bob and doug's re-entry they describe dragon as sort of coming back to life when it re-enters the atmosphere so again those temperatures are caused by friction so um you know the the spacecraft itself is moving at such a high rate of speed that it's it's hitting all these air particles and so um it's got to be you know the vibration levels and uh the sound has got to be sort of elevated at this point as it continues to go through the earth's atmosphere and as we mentioned this is the first time that the vehicle has felt this lift and this drag since launch um the atmosphere in space that doesn't exist and so it's a vacuum and haven't been feeling this and been able to hear those sounds that uh you were discussing so um it's quite a different moment after having six months in microgravity they will begin to start feeling some g's as we mentioned between three and five g's upon their re-entry and we are standing by it's been about four minutes now since that loss of signal began that's an estimated seven minutes the plasma is building up on the outside of the capsule as it continues entering the earth's atmosphere the temperatures around the capsule building up to 3 500 degrees fahrenheit and this view from our wb-57 aircraft with thermal imaging cameras we will be looking for the crew dragon to come into view and there you can see it in the entry of earth's atmosphere crew dragon continuing its journey home so there's a material on the bottom of the capsule pica 3.0 stands for phenolic impregnated carbon ablator that is the material that is really shielding the capsule from all of that extreme temperature and so the capsule itself goes in sort of bottom first and that lightweight material oh and that is just a fantastic shot that is the dragon re-entering the earth's atmosphere as it leaves that trail behind and then again that that the illuminations from all that heat um that is building up uh due to friction of just the re-entry speeds of dragon when it meets the earth's atmosphere and that view coming from the boat go navigator crew dragon continuing as you said into to enter earth's atmosphere so uh having these two views right now with it being a a nighttime splashdown pretty exciting that we're getting uh two good views upon re-entry into earth's atmosphere so again a lot of things are happening uh pretty rapidly here in about three minutes the first set of parachutes will deploy they are drogue shoots they are conical in nature and their job is to stabilize and begin sort of the initial deceleration of the vehicle followed very shortly after by the main parachutes there are four of them dragon spacex come check and spacex this is dragon over 4g is 42 kilometers spacex we have you loud and clear expect automated shoot deployment and resilience copies we are at flight kilometers 4.34 on the keys that's commander mike hopkins reporting the g's that they experienced upon re-entry and as you heard we are now out of that loss of signal portion meaning the plasma has eroded away enough from the spacecraft i think my heart skipped a beat as soon as i heard the crew uh responding back and you know one thing i did note as soon as mike uh turned on his comms there was a lot of background noise and that is sort of uh you know the the um after effects of dragon's reentry so this view again from the wb-57 aircraft dragon spacex a gps is converged expect nominal altitude for drug shoot deploy resilience copies nominal altitude for drug deploy crew dragon resilience now 30 kilometers over earth it's quite a quick drop over that a 100 that we saw just a few minutes ago and now we'll be looking for drug parachute deploy within the next minute or so at 11 52 p.m pacific time 6 52 gmt those two drogue shoots should deploy at 18 000 feet and at an altitude crew dragon will be moving approximately 350 miles per hour dragon spacex recovery team reports visual good news we're at 20 kilometers seats are rotating spacex copies on the seat rotation the seats are rotating into the proper landing position we saw them a little bit more reclined earlier facing the top of the capsule and now they are more forward facing towards that side hatch we also got confirmation that the recovery teams can also now see dragon coming back for jokes copy braced for drugs so we are waiting for confirmation that the drogue chutes have deployed we are expecting them to deploy uh any minute now and it looks like those might be our drogue shoots visual two shoots spacex from resilience we shall give droves spacex copies and concurs nominal descent right on two drugs uh continuing to hear good news after good news uh two drug shoots have deployed everything looks nominal and we're slowing the dragon vehicle down we are expecting the four main shoots to deploy uh within the next minute and those four drogue shoots oh you can see them being pulled out now visual on four mains in resilience copies and we see a nominal descent rate spacex copies and concern concurs nominal decent rate and this view coming from the wb-57 very clear image of those four main parachutes slowing the vehicle down to what will be about 16 miles per hour prior to splashdown just off the coast of panama city florida if it were daylight we would have an image of those four beautiful parachutes being orange and white and still getting these incredible views even though we are in a nighttime splashdown so we are waiting for visuals of splashdown the dragon one program had great success with water landing with 20 successful splashdowns over the course of that program nine of which were carried out by flight proven dragon spacecrafts in space had you broken but we show you just under 800 meters still good decent right just under 800 meters from the earth that's about half of a mile and we are tracking splashdown and 600 meters and we're showing centimeters per second on the decent rate a little higher than that [Music] spacex copies and what a view we have here even though it's nighttime uh we have some great visuals uh of dragon there with his four main shoots deployed uh slowly coming back to earth splashdown is scheduled for just a few minutes from now now just a quarter mile away from splashdown and that splashdown time scheduled for 11 57 pm pacific time and spacex we show nominal decent rates 200 meters breaks for splashdown spacex copies brace for splashdown seconds away from splashdown everything nominal aboard crew dragon resilience returning to earth and there are the boats starting to chase after dragon to begin their recovery operations as soon as dragon lands [Applause] and i don't know if you can hear the applause [Applause] but we have visual confirmation of the crew one resilience capsule from a rebellion that is excellent news we are splashed down we've apparels have fired or waterfront spacex copies and concurs we do she main cut as well so again you heard the applause uh the crew one capsule has returned um and we have successful splashdown the main shoots have also cut as well the fast boats are now making their way towards the capsule to begin the recovery operations again that first boat is going to start to inspect the capsule and make sure that there isn't any residual toxic fumes in the air dragon on behalf of nasa and the spacex teams we welcome you back to planet earth and thanks for flying spacex for those of you enrolled in our frequent flyer program you have earned 68 million miles on this voyage at spacex resilience it is back on planet earth and we'll take those miles are they transferable and dragon will have to refer you to our marketing department for that policy and we are in one that's three decimal one of 4.800 and uh resilience please repeat last about four decimal eight hundred okay we are at three and we show stable one spacex copies staple one good news so a bit of levity from the crew and the core about the transformer transferable mileage and that splashdown coming at 11 56 p.m pacific time 6 56 gmt we're hearing reports that the capsule is in stable one position meaning it is upright as we heard those four main parachutes were cut and those two fast boats will soon approach the vehicle they will be able to as we mentioned sniff for those hyper golf fuels as well as attach buoys to the parachutes and make sure they are recovered the teams have been ready and waiting about three nautical miles away so it's going to take them around 20 minutes to make their way to mike victor shannon and suici inside crew dragon and while the teams move in we are continuing to watch the scene unfold in this view coming from go navigator the recovery vessel on which we will see dragon hoisted later and that was just so cool to see we the teams had visual of dragon with the shoots deployed coming back down to earth and then you saw the fast boats sort of just as fast as they could uh you know heading over to dragon i just make sure that everything can happen as quickly as possible and make sure that the astronauts are safe and good news the uh recovery vehicle has a go to approach the spacecraft in spacex we are go for recovery personnel to approach expect personnel alongside in about one minute and spacex from dragon that is straight news and that comes right on time as well just five minutes after splashdown those fast boats are going to be able to approach the capsule and put buoys on those parachutes and the hypergal checks will continue and eventually someone will help rig up the capsule to be picked up by the uh the go navigator once it has to go to approach the vehicle as well and all of this action coming after undocking from the international space station at 5 30 5 p.m pacific time today just six and a half hours from them to board the uh crew dragon or to depart on crew dragon and splash down back on earth after almost six months in space and here's a aerial shot of those fast boats approaching dragon spacex come check and spacex from resilience we're still reading it loud and clear loud and clear as well we just completed a minor calm configuration thanks you bet 10 we do some lights outside looks like some people are getting close affirmative uh quite the welcome home party so it looks like that first boat has already made it to the capsule there are a number of other boats and recovery vessels um standing by and once we clear the area of um you know from any hypergolic vapors they'll you know move on to the next phases of recovery and some of those darker spaces you see there in the water are the parachutes that will be uh collected later on but this view yes from the wb-57 aircraft that provided us with those infrared images uh as the dragon was still reentering the earth's atmosphere and then all the way through splashdown as well so you can see that second boat approaching those uh parachutes to attach some buoys it really could not have been a more flawless journey home for crew dragon resilience yeah we we continue to see um you know nominal call after nominal call from the dragon spacex we show hyper goal sweeps and unfor fired ordinance checks uh nominal rigor should come aboard momentarily expect about two five minutes until capsule lift standby for pmc with spacex flight surgeon okay resilience copies all we're standing by the cordless just said um we are clear of any hyper goals uh in the area so we are starting to send the recovery vessel and we'll start to hoist up dragon in about 25 minutes and then shortly after that he mentioned pmc which is the private medical conference again the medical staff or one of the first people to talk to the folks inside the dragon capsule so um you know in about 30 minutes here we should be seeing the um hopefully the astronauts egress from the side hatch of the dragon capsule we also heard that mentioned the rigger will be online or will be on the capsule shortly that's the one crew member we were discussing earlier or one team member i should say that will climb on the capsule and begin rigging it for uh for to be hoisted by the uh go navigator vessel it will help place crew dragon into the dragon nest aboard go navigator everything's still moving on timeline with this recovery tonight the first splashdown of a nasa uh and spacex crew capsule and the first blast down for nasa since 1968 with the return of the apollo 8 astronauts and one thing to note you can see the sheen of the ocean uh with those lights there and the sea itself uh you know that could have been mistaken for a beach but we are in the middle of the ocean and the seas are just as calm as they can be again weather was something we were tracking and we waved off splashdown a couple times this past week but today's conditions seemed absolutely serene there it is um for landing and you know recovery operations so it's just a great thing to see that you know they don't have to combat any type of inclement weather while they're already doing such important work here in the gulf of mexico so you can see some of those recovery vessels surrounding the capsule and the crew members on board still just monitoring the status of the recovery and as andy mentioned will participate in a private medical conference to report back on how they are feeling and once they are brought on board they'll have an opportunity to be checked out by medical personnel as well see some activity of that that fast boat around crew dragon and that's what's in the middle of the screen right now there is a much larger recovery vessel nearby that will that will hoist up dragon onto the back end of the ship we're expecting that to happen in approximately 25 minutes and i can't tell exactly but we may already have that person on crew dragon uh beginning to rig it in preparation for when go navigator can approach and be attached to to the ship and brought on board so this was the primary site that we landed on off the coast of panama city in florida we did have an alternate site off the coast of tampa there was an equivalent amount of personnel and hardware and ships ready to perform the same type of recovery operations in the event that dragon had to choose that site over the primary one but things continuing to go smooth and we did get a report that the crew is feeling well inside the capsule just what we wanted to hear of course they will still have that private medical conference and they will still receive medical checkouts once they arrive on go navigator but um amazing preliminary news uh that the crew reports that they are feeling well and and that's quite a feat in itself to be feeling well after six months in microgravity and to return to gravity so great news all around tonight with the return of crew dragon resilience coming up on just about 15 minutes since we had splashdown today this evening that splashdown coming at 6 50 or 11 56 p.m pacific time 6 56 gmt and now you can a little more clearly on the right hand side of the capsule see the person who is preparing it for their uh to be picked up by go navigator with that rigging system and that's right on time as well so this is the resilience capsule it flew for the first time in november of last year and when it flew uh it was pristine and white and now we've got a little bit of a toastiness on its side and some people have uh described the re-entered capsule as a sort of a toasted marshmallow and again that is just from all the heat on re-entry it is continuing to stay buoyant in the gulf of mexico the dragon vehicle itself is designed to be waterproof and in the event that there is a breach we do have some abilities to pump water into some bladders in the capsule to make sure that it stays buoyant for as long as possible but everything continues to go well we are now seeing a uh even better view of the rigor on top of the dragon capsule preparing preparing it for hoisting later on uh in a few minutes here and that's a great picture you can see just how calm the the sea really is that is the gulf of mexico yeah uh it's pretty amazing that it's that truly glassy as we heard described earlier a great view of the capsule now and the person preparing it to be hoisted on to go navigator and as a reminder we're going to remain live with you throughout this coverage uh up until the crew has been extracted from the vehicle and that's a view another view from go navigator you can see uh the nest right there that's where crew dragon will be placed once it has been hoisted onto the vessel and we have some people stepping in on the nest and you can just see sort of the scale uh of that nest and really the boat um the dragon capsule is um you know we throughout today we've seen it from a distance resilient spacex recovery is proceeding nominally at this time the recovery vessel uh is backing up towards uh the spacecraft and proceeding normally and you can see crew dragon resilience within the frame of uh that hoist mechanism on go navigator the report going out to the crew that things continue to proceed nominally and we can see that for ourselves as well uh the the the space the uh go navigator will continue backing up to crew dragon until it's close enough to attach those lines and hoist the spacecraft onto the nest there at the bottom of your screen yeah as we're saying earlier the um the scale really doesn't really put into perspective until you you know start to put people around um the capsule itself is you know over 20 000 pounds and so uh in the dragon spacex uh repeat call we have a we are proceeding normally looks like the recovery vessel is about one boat length away backing up towards the spacecraft that is great news spacex looking forward to it continuing to proceed nominally go navigator is backing up towards the resilience capsule as the uh team of recovery personnel continue to get dragon on top of the nest there that you see on screen and once crude dragon is lifted onto the nest uh it will shortly afterward be pulled toward the egress platform or the platform that allows them to exit that uh platform is built up towards near the uh that forward hatch and it should allow them to more easily exit the vehicle now been 20 minutes since tonight's splashdown 6 56 gmt 11 56 pm pacific time mike hopkins victor glover shannon walker and suicina gucci all inside crew dragon and recovery operations proceed nominally so we are now waiting excitedly for the recovery of our dragon spacecraft with nasa astronauts mike hopkins victor glover shannon walker and jaxa astronaut so ichinoguchi inside dragon has already autonomously completed several steps to safe itself following splashdown for the for those of you just joining us the mission has gone smoothly so far dragon uh successfully splashed down in the gulf of mexico off the coast of panama city florida at approximately 11 56 a.m or p.m pacific time approximately the dragon spacex rigging is complete approximately five minutes until capsule lift resilience got these five minutes to lift and that's good news they will continue to get closer to the spacecraft with rigging complete meaning it will be able to be hoisted in five minutes from now but approximately six and a half hours ago a dragon autonomously undocked from the international space station completed a series of departure burns jettisoned its trunk section and performed its final burn the do orbit burn she placed itself on a trajectory toward the gulf of mexico the dragon successfully reentered the earth's atmosphere followed by deployment of its parachutes to slow the spacecraft down to a gentle splashdown at just about 16 miles per hour and we're now following the final part of mike victor shannon and suici's journey as dragon is lifted out of the water and placed on the recovery boat upon detection of landing dragon automatically releases the main parachutes to prevent wind from pulling the spacecraft dragon then automatically saves any pyrotechnics still present on the vehicle and may automatically perform additional minor system reconfigurations the astronauts do remain seated and in their suits at this point but the on-board air conditioning keeps temperatures in check inside of the spacecraft and the communication systems on board remain powered so the crew can continue to communicate with ground spacex has two fast boats in the recovery fleet which moved quickly to the splashdown point and they have been joined by go navigator which is the main recovery vessel in your screen now and that has moved into position near the spacecraft those two fast boats have very specific roles on first approach it's immediately focused on safety inspection of the capsule integrity and checking for any presence of those hypergolic propellant vapors we've been talking about ensuring that it is safe for go navigator to approach the dragon spacecraft once the capsule is cleared for full approach the team begins rigging the capsule for water recovery by the recovery ship which we recently heard was completed and the second fast boat is responsible for parachute recovery and also serves as a redundant boat to the first and we saw that team member or on a jet ski helping to gather up the detached parachutes as well so it took about 10 minutes for the recovery crew to complete their safety checks um once complete the team will begin preparing dragon to be lifted into the recovery vessel and as part of this preparation one member of the recovery team will climb up on top of the capsule and rig the dragon spacecraft as they just did a few moments ago and then from there it will take less than an hour to raise dragon to the recovery boat and remove the crew from the spacecraft and then after that after medical checkouts the crew will return to land within four hours either by boat or helicopter depending on the landing site so um if no medical assistance is needed the crew will depart for houston and now if you look very closely you can see uh down to the bottom right of the capsule there is one attachment on crew dragon there will be multiple to keep the and there's another on the left there will be multiple to keep the the spacecraft from swinging when it once it is hoisted out of the water and it'll very very quickly be placed on that dragon nest waiting just below and at the bottom center of your screen and as you can see crew dragon now at multiple attachment points uh to that system on go navigator again spacex expect lift in nine zero seconds copy 90 seconds thanks so about a minute and a half until we see crew dragon removed from the water and there's still a team member up on the front of it that's likely the same team member who helped rig the system and prepare it for attachment to the vessel and as we mentioned earlier this splashdown a new record breaking the old record for the longest crude capsule in orbit from america previously held by the final skylab crew at 84 days one hour and 15 minutes and this crew returning with 168 days in space and doubling that previous record dragon spacex brace for capsule lift okay so we're here at the lift free dragon resilience now out of the water being prepared to be placed on that dragon nest in the center of your screen at the bottom and just an hour ago this capsule had just completed the deorbit burn and was still in space and now is being returned to go navigator the first time for these crew members to be on earth in almost six months pretty much on the center of the screen you can see the side hatch of the dragon capsules later on today that's where the astronauts will be egressing from when they were attached to the international space station they exited from the top hatch where the nose cone opens up and those two holes essentially that you see up toward the top of the nose cone above the resilience welcome aboard the recovery vessel recovery personnel are completing final checks standby for transition translation of the egress platform in a couple minutes brazilians copy those those two holes aboard the uh aboard the crew dragon above the hatch and close to the nose cone those are uh where the drogue parachutes were stored in that upper bulkhead and there's near a deployable panel so they're deployed by two drogue mortars which are pyrotechnics fire to deploy the chutes and those four main parachutes are also stored under deployable panels but those are near the base of the spacecraft so below that side hatch panel and those were drawn out by the drogue chutes everything just absolutely flawless tonight with the recovery of crew dragon resilience so before opening the hatch the spacecraft's cabin pressure must be equalized with the outside environment so once the hatch is open that will be mike victor shannon and soichi's first breath of fresh air since boarding falcon 9 at the start of their mission back in november of last year the next visual we are looking for is for dragon to be pulled toward the egress platform uh on the dragon nest so they will move toward the platform that is up toward the side hatch that'll allow for easier extraction removal of the crew members it's important to note that mike victor shannon and suici will be getting assistance from the recovery teams while exiting the capsule this is the same process for any returning long duration crew members as returning to a gravity environment can essentially wreak havoc with our vestibular system which is responsible for maintaining our balance and motion and safety is our number one priority with this operation as you've seen throughout not just today but this entire mission so you'll see all uh mike victor shannon and suici helped out of the capsule we won't see them outside of the capsule today but they will be assisted a few feet to the medical quarters aboard the boat and we discussed earlier if you've seen crews return on a soyuz it's the same process as when astronauts are carried from the capsule to waiting chairs and then carried into the nearby medical tent this is also the period where any time critical cargo can be removed from the spacecraft with the remainder waiting until the ship is back in port once the ship and capsule return the recovery team will perform additional inspections before loading dragon onto a flat flatbed truck at the spacex facility in cape canaveral for post processing so the crew just secured a dragon onto the recovery vessel and now it's moving towards the platform where eventually the hatch will open up more personnel assisting with the recovery operations and that platform coming right below the side hatch making it much easier for teams to help the crew egress or exit the vehicle and this is the first time that this side hatch will be opened since launch day november 15th the the hatch that's used on the international space station is that forward hatch underneath the nose cone which is currently closed at the top of the vehicle so as soon as this was sealed by spacex teams back in november it has not been reopened since and we see teams still preparing the capsule for that hatch opening so to still be a few minutes before we have hatch opening again we need to make sure that the cabin pressure is equalized to the ambient pressure outside the team also performs a few checks to make sure that everything is a go before we um open up that side hatch it's been about 35 minutes since crew one splashed down so you can see just how exponent this process already is uh having the capsule on board and preparing to open up that side hatch and all of the parachutes both the drugs and the main chutes have been located and those will be recovered spacex residents go for spacex hey solo you guys are welcome to come on board with the cameras if you'd like spacex copies and work and solo you got uh one more call before we wrap things up is that correct affirmative we have a few uh technicians just uh doing some work on the exterior of the hatch we should be uh ready to open up shortly we hope now the crew members will not ride this boat all the way back to shore they will board a helicopter and that helicopter will take them um back to pensacola and waiting there will be a nasa plane to bring them back to houston it's quite surreal that about seven hours ago this capsule uh was traveling at over a dragon stand by for side hatch opening and egress okay solo we are standing by and uh while i'm thinking about it uh solo for spacex and the nasa teams on behalf of uh crew one and and our families we just want to say thank you we want to say thank you for this amazing vehicle resilience um i we said it before the mission and and i'm going to say it again here afterwards it's amazing what can be accomplished when uh when people come together um so finally i'd just like to say quite frankly uh you all are changing the world congratulations it's great to be back and hopper thanks so much you've got a round of applause here at mission control and uh from all of us it's truly been epic working with your team uh from early development through splashdown uh of the world's first long duration spaceflight uh human spaceflight uh your crew is really a tribute to resilience's name we wish you all happy reunions with your families and loved ones and thanks again for flying spacex you solo thank you all so we had some kind words exchanged from the core and my copy mike hopkins the commander the hatch is now open uh we also heard some applause and mission control here in spacex just a tremendous amount of dedication that has gone into this particular mission over the last couple of years and so we're really seeing the fruits of the labor now uh really ending the mission and uh you know just seven hours ago this this capsule was traveling over 17 000 miles an hour in space docked to the international space station and now it's safely secured um back on earth and we have the hatch open and that hatch open for the first time as we mentioned since launch day november 15 2020 these astronauts completing the first long-duration commercial crew mission and now holding the record for the longest uh time in space by an american crewed capsule with returning 168 days and with that side hatch being open as we discussed the first people to speak with uh mike victor shannon and suici are the medical team and as we heard earlier the crew did report that they were feeling well but still important to get checked out after spending six months in space they will eventually be removed from the castle and put on stretchers to take and taken to some additional medical checks we're coming up on 40 40 minutes since splashdown that capsule splashing down at 656 gmt 11 56 pm pacific time returning crew one aboard crew dragon resilience that side hatch now open crew members speaking with medical personnel and preparing for egress everything was on the timeline for crew dragon today undocking at 5 35 p.m pacific time completing those four departure burns as well as nose cone or as cloth separation and trunk jettison we had some amazing views from the international space station along the way that deorbit burn lasting the scheduled 16 and a half minutes slowing down crew dragon just enough to drop them out of earth's orbit begin their re-entry into the atmosphere we saw both drogue parachutes deployed nominally followed by four good main parachutes and a soft splashdown as scheduled in the gulf of mexico off the coast of panama city florida at 11 56 p.m pacific time 6 56 gmt and after splashdown we saw the two fast boats approaching the vehicle the first one made sure the area was safe for approach and then one of the riggers climbed on top of the capsule and started preparing it for the eventual hoist and lift onto the boat that is on screen right now go navigator really the as soon as we got visuals of dragon those boats really headed over there as fast as they could and tried to expedite the process and now we're here the the capsule is on the boat it's secured uh hatch is open and we have some personnel tending to the astronauts right now and make sure everything is a-ok after what really has been a picture-perfect mission so far the crew remains on the timeline to egress or exit dragon uh in under an hour after splashdown so they still have um about 20 minutes until we reach or 18 minutes until we reach that hour mark and we are perfectly on scheduled for the hatch to have been opened at its time and we just saw one of those tablets being removed that the crew members were using to track the mission throughout the day just as it takes a little while to get crew members strapped in properly from preparing for launch we we see the same thing whenever they come home we want to make sure that everything is done in an orderly fashion and safely for our four astronauts seems removing a few parts to make room for the astronauts to egress and that looked like those foot foot rests essentially i'm not sure the best thing to call them i can't think of it right now you can see those two windows on either side of the hatch that's what gave the astronauts a view earlier they said they had a great view of the international space station and even upon launch day they gave us some views as they were heading to the space station so those are their their two windows that they've been able to look at look out during their journey aboard this spacecraft for those just joining us um on screen right now is the crew one capsule resilience has returned from space um we are on sort of the back end of the recovery vessel uh go navigator and here is uh i think that's mike hopkins the commander uh he's very excited feeling pretty good after six months in space this is just excellent to see the astronauts coming out of the dragon vehicle so just off the coast of panama city florida and the hatch has been opened there was some materials that removed looks like the seat rests were removed or the um the footrests were removed and now we just saw the commander mike hopkins exit the vehicle do a little bit of a dance as we mentioned these crew will be crew members will be making their way over to some medical checks uh standard procedure for us when we have crew members returning from long-duration space flight or any space flight really when we are having crew members return on a soyuz spacecraft in kazakhstan there is a medical tent nearby and we carry those crew members from the spacecraft to the medical tent for their checkouts so even though the crew has reported they're feeling good and it certainly looked like mike hopkins was feeling good they will still get those standard medical checks before boarding a helicopter later this evening to take them back to shore and once they are on land in florida they will board a nasa plane to bring them back to ellington field in houston texas where they can be reunited with friends and family for the first time in almost six months in the bottom left of your screen there is a stretcher there again that is standard returning back to earth after such a long duration in microgravity has it can do things to your body so those two spacex team members preparing to help out the next crew member and that is a nasa astronaut victor glover and this is a view of mission control in hawthorne continuing to support the mission um yeah we just saw mike hopkins exit the vehicle again uh things are going pretty nominally the uh crew the vehicle had a splashdown at approximately 11 56 p.m pacific time and shortly after that the recovery team began their operations we sent fastballs out there to start to sniff out the hyper goals and make sure there wasn't any toxic vapors in the air began rigging the boat and eventually getting the dragon capsule on top of the go navigator recovery vessel and we saw uh mike hawkins out of the spacecraft first he did a little dance for us to show us just how good he felt and then followed by victor glover victor glover returning from his first space flight he's really the newbie on this trip i guess you could say uh he served as pilot of crew one crew dragon resilience so he was the next out of the capsule and uh we are still awaiting two more crew members to be removed from the capsule and they will be checked out by those medical teams on board the ship but as we heard earlier they reported that they were feeling well yeah the two mission specialists that we haven't seen yet are shannon walker and soichi noguchi who sat on sort of on the ends of the seats inside the vehicle yeah pretty stellar return home today only taking about six and a half hours from undocking to splashdown and you know throughout the mission today we had a really great feedback about some nominal departure burns we did a prop wasting burn where we shed some unnecessary propellant from the vehicle to lighten the load of the dragon spacecraft and then we started to prepare for deorbit so we had the claw retraction or separation that is an umbilical that ties telemetry data and power from the capsule to the trunk so we separated that then we also jettisoned the trunk shedding a bit more weight and then finally we had our deorbit burn which took about 16 minutes um and then we got some fantastic footage of dragon returning back through the atmosphere and then eventually when it deployed its shoots it was definitely a sight to see and we saw all of those shoots deployed nominally first two drogue shoots that slowed the spacecraft down to about 119 miles per hour those four main shoots following and slowing the spacecraft down to about uh 16 miles per hour for a much softer splashdown and that splashdown coming right on time at 11 56 p.m pacific time 6 56 gmt so uh we have heard that shannon walker is now outside of the crew dragon resilience capsule leaving soichino gucci to be the last crew member extracted today and as we mentioned they will all get a medical checkouts ahead of heading back to land and so quite a speedy operations to you know get the capsule back onto the boat and open up the hatch so again we uh mike victor and shannon have exited the vehicle and we are waiting on soichi confirmation that suici is also going to exit and again they uh are you know going to be checked out to make sure everything's okay and then eventually make their way back towards houston uh where hopefully they can reunite with their family soon and we expect them to be back in houston by the early hours of tomorrow morning hopefully let's see here they should return to houston i can't find the exact timeline just at this moment but they will board a nasa jet once they return to land in florida um that helicopter taking them from go navigator to florida and then the nasa plane taking them back to ellington field so it's quite a speedy recovery process you know when we land crew members in kazakhstan um we are able to get them out of the vehicle very quickly as well because it is on land so it's easier to approach and to maneuver around they get medical checks as well and uh and then they board a nasa plane and or the nasa astronauts i should say aboard a nasa plane and return to houston but that flight time is is just so much longer simply because it's on the other side of the world so quite different for these astronauts to be reunited with their families um just very shortly after landing yeah and uh one thing that certainly helped the speedy recovery options today was the weather we got you know uh good news that wind speed was super low and the waves themselves were also very very small so you know if you've been following along the original departure date was supposed to be on the 28th but we waived uh that due to weather and then we also waived the attempt on the 30th but today conditions definitely seem ideal and you know it it definitely paid today as after the capsule had landed the seas were as calm as i've ever seen them making the trip for the fast boats to the capsule that much smoother and and good news uh suichi niguchi has egressed the vehicle as well so now that mike victor shannon and suici are safely back home on earth and getting checked out by the nasa medical team we are going to wrap up our live coverage of their historic return this all kicked off on november 15 2020 from historic launch pad 39a at the kennedy space center in florida after successful liftoff and separation from falcon 9 mike victor shannon and suici made a 27-hour flight on board dragon to the international space station since arriving at the space station they sent more they spent more than nearly they spent almost six months as members of expedition 6465 executing science experiments spacewalks and repairs while aboard the orbiting laboratory their journey home today began just hours ago saturday may 1st when they closed the hatch to dragon and undocked hours later at 5 35 pm pacific time we then jettisoned dragon's trunk and performed our final on orbit maneuver the deorbit burn at approximately 11 03 pm pacific time to send dragon on the path home the spacecraft re-entered the earth's atmosphere and slowed its descent with successful deployments of the two drogue shoot drop parachutes and four main shoots with the final splashdown occurring at off the coast of panama city florida at 11 57 pm pacific time following that successful splashdown we saw spacex recovery experts move in and prepare dragon resilience for its lift onto the recovery vessel and just a little less than an hour following splashdown we saw mike vic victor shannon and soichi you know safely exit the dragon capsule next up they will catch a helicopter flight back to shore where they will transfer to the waiting nasa plane for the short flight back to houston where they will be reunited with families to bring an end to this flight we can't express what an honor and a privilege it has been to share their journey with all of you as we continue this new era in human space flight in just the last week we saw four astronauts fly to station to begin their mission and now four more return to earth to successfully complete another so spacex and nasa are already looking forward to the next rotation when crew 2 comes home and crew 3 launches all of which is currently targeted for october of this year and at that time we'll once again have a direct handover with 11 people on board the station for a short duration as we continue this regular cadence of flying astronauts on spacex rockets from pad 39-8 at kennedy space center again thank you for tuning in for the culmination of crew one a six-month mission that has been years in the making all of us here at spacex and nasa are excited to reunite these four astronauts with their families we'll continue to work hard to ensure future astronauts safety and mission success so be sure to follow spacex and nasa online as well as the social media for updates on crew and cargo flights to and from the international space station and we'll continue to share the progress of mike victor shannon and suici's trip back to houston on social media we are also awaiting a briefing including nasa spacex and jaxa leadership that's coming up at 2 a.m pacific time 5 a.m eastern time so we have to say thank you one more time again for tuning in and cheering on mike victor shannon and suici as they return home and we'll see you next time when we once again are sending astronauts on american rockets in american spacecraft from american soil see you next time [Music] foreign

Channel: NASA

Views: 1,682,218

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Id: 6O-N5E6x0uc

Length: 118min 43sec (7123 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021