STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
Three NASA astronauts and a European flier boarded their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, undocked from the Worldwide House Station and plunged again to Earth Friday, splashing down within the Atlantic Ocean east of Jacksonville to shut out a 170-day mission.
With Crew 4 commander Kjell Lindgren and co-pilot Bob Hines monitoring cockpit shows, flanked by Jessica Watkins and European House Company astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the Crew Dragon “Freedom” undocked from the Concord module’s higher port at 12:05 p.m. EDT and slowly backed away.
“We’re unhappy to see you go, we want you godspeed, protected re-entry and touchdown and calm seas,” radioed Frank Rubio from contained in the station. “We’re going to overlook you guys. … Get pleasure from your time together with your households.”
“It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to serve on the house station for the previous six months,” Lindgren replied. “It was a pleasure to get to work with you. … We all know that you just’re going to proceed to do wonderful issues on station, we stay up for seeing you again residence as properly.”
After shifting a protected distance away, Lindgren and his crewmates monitored an automatic 16-minute 40-second deorbit rocket firing beginning at 4:01 p.m. that decreased the capsule’s 4.7-mile-per-second orbital velocity by about 260 mph.
That was simply sufficient to drop the spacecraft out of orbit for re-entry alongside a northwest-to-southeast trajectory throughout the heartland of America.
Descending below 4 giant parachutes, the capsule gently splashed down off Florida’s east coast at 4:55 p.m., within reach of a SpaceX restoration ship stationed close by.
“On behalf of SpaceX, welcome residence,” a flight controller radioed from the corporate’s management middle in Hawthorne, California. “Thanks for flying SpaceX.”
“And SpaceX, from Freedom, thanks for an unbelievable journey as much as orbit and an unbelievable journey residence,” Lindgren replied. “It’s a pleasure to be again.”
Help personnel aboard the restoration ship then hoisted the capsule out of the water, opened the hatch and helped the astronauts make their method out as they started re-adapting to gravity after almost six months in weightlessness. Mission length: 170 days and 13 hours since launch final April 27.
All 4 appeared wholesome and in good spirits, smiling and waving to restoration crews as they have been helped out separately, placed on reclining stretchers and brought contained in the ship for medical checks. Available to welcome them residence was Megan McArthur, an astronaut who flew on the third piloted Crew Dragon mission and who the restoration ship was named after.
Following preliminary medical checks, NASA deliberate to fly all 4 again to the Johnson House Heart in Houston. Cristoforetti shall be flown from there again to Europe aboard a European House Company jet.
Throughout a information convention earlier than departing the house station, all 4 crew members stated their first precedence was getting residence to their households, together with scorching espresso – in a cup – pizza and ice cream.
“I’d say in addition to household and associates and bathe, I definitely stay up for the chance of spending time in nature and simply having fun with all of the sensations {that a} pure surroundings gives,” stated Cristoforetti, the outgoing station commander.
Added Lindgren: “Most likely a chilly drink with ice in it. Ingesting from a glass or a mug and a few nice espresso. Ice Cream sounds actually (good). … However undoubtedly trying ahead to getting again residence, getting again to our households and simply stress-free with everyone there.”
As for what they’ll miss about life in house: weightlessness and the view of Earth from 260 miles up.
“All of us are going to overlook with the ability to float,” Lindgren stated. “It’s a such a weird factor and so wonderful that our brains are capable of alter to it so shortly. … It’s a tremendous method to have the ability to get round.
“I believe we’ll miss floating and miss simply the views, , the chance once you’re floating previous a window, to simply look out and see Australia or Africa or the immensity of the ocean with clouds speckled throughout it. It simply freezes you, and also you simply wish to you stare at it for a short while and simply attempt to realize it. We’re all gonna miss that.”
Undocking marked the conclusion of a fancy sequence of flights to exchange the house station’s complete seven-member crew.
On September 21, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carried two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut to the station — Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and Rubio — changing three different cosmonauts who returned to Earth on September 29 after a half-year keep.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon then took off on October 5, carrying NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, together with Japanese veteran Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina, the primary Russian to launch aboard a U.S. rocket in almost 20 years.
Kikina’s addition to the crew, and Rubio’s seat aboard the Soyuz, have been a part of a brand new settlement between NASA and the Russian house company Roscosmos to renew launching U.S. astronauts aboard Russian ferry ships and to begin launching cosmonauts aboard Crew Dragons.
The purpose is to ensure at the very least one consultant of every nation is at all times on board the station to function their respective methods in case a medical emergency or another concern forces a Soyuz or Crew Dragon to depart early, taking its crew again to Earth forward of schedule.
With Crew 5 aboard the station and Crew 4 again on Earth, NASA will flip its collective consideration to readying the $4.1 billion House Launch System moon rocket for its return to the launch pad in early November.
After dealing with a wide range of hydrogen leaks and two launch scrubs in August and September, NASA plans to make one other try and get the large rocket off the bottom for its delayed maiden flight on November 14, kicking off a 25-day mission to ship an unpiloted Orion capsule across the moon and again.
