The SpaceX Dragon capsule has been given a "Go" for reentry and splashdown today. They will land in the Gulf just off Pensacola, well clear of the mini-hurricane going up the eastern coast of Florida. Splashdown expected at 2:48 pm Eastern. NASA TV and SpaceX webcasts are live now.
Very interesting. Thanks for the heads up.
Hoping for a safe landing.
Forty five years since the last splash.
I'll be watching.
A splashdown seems a mite archaic albeit efficient. Especially considering they land the boosters within 3 feet of the coffee and donuts!
No need to re-invent the wheel I suppose.
The original SpaceX plan was to land the capsule just like the booster using rocket power, no parachutes. NASA did NOT like that at all. It was NASA that demanded they go back to the ocean splashdown method.
Fingers, toes crossed for a safe return for all.
The original SpaceX plan was to land the capsule just like the booster using rocket power, no parachutes. NASA did NOT like that at all. It was NASA that demanded they go back to the ocean splashdown method.
Next generation, maybe? Seems like the proof of concept has been completed...
Just over half an hour now until the actual re-entry process begins. The first thing is to jettison the "trunk" or lower equipment bay. Then they fire the de-orbit rockets.
Oh my god!
The guy in the front row took his masking to drink coffee.
But his coffee wasn't wearing a mask!
Back to the countdown..
Re-entry burn has started. Splashdown in about 50 minutes.
Watching on youtube with all the chat scrolling by on the right side. It is depressing how many morons there are with keyboards.
Jerry
Thanks again for the earlier heads up, Rocky..... I'm on it. Just jumping back & forth between here and spacex.
It's pretty amazing the difference in mission control at Space X vs the former NASA centers..
There is probably more computing power in a smart phone then the first several Apollo missions.
Chutes out.
Why don't they open the door to the capsule? They have been on that ship for a long time, at least a half hour. Why the delay?
They detected very low levels of propellant vapors and had to wiat until they could be purged for safety.
It was actually pretty cool
Thanks, Rocky. I wasn't getting a clear report from the reporters on tv.
They detected very low levels of propellant vapors and had to wiat until they could be purged for safety.
Is that inside the capsule? Are the astronauts on breathing apparatus from bottles?
Dutch, no. The vapors were detected outside the capsule's crew space. They were in the equipment section in what you might think of as the "basement" between the heat shield and the sealed crew space. Running a purge of air through that area cleared it up.
If I recall my NASA safety briefings correctly, the two hypergolic propellant chemicals involved are Monomethyl Hydrazine and Nitrogen Tetraoxide. What they detected was a very small trace of N2O4 - actually below the dangerous level, but high enough to cause concern. So they stopped everything until it cleared up. The ground crew was in more danger than the astronauts, who were perfectly safe.
N2O4 is somewhat less toxic of the two. We were taught that MMH smells a bit like ammonia - but if there's enough of it to detect through your nose, you're already dead. Naturally, they did not allow us to sniff that in class.
Oh my god!
The guy in the front row took his masking to drink coffee.
But his coffee wasn't wearing a mask!
Back to the countdown..
You can do a lot when you own the company
I watched this a bit here and there and it was pretty cool. I had no idea so much of the process was automated, or controlled from the ground. It seemed like the guys in Dragon were mostly there to monitor and enjoy the ride.
I wish that they would hammer all of those folks that crowded them while retrieving the craft.
They were kind of stupid.
The whole splashdown was interesting, but the video quality was horrible throughout. Watched the NASA channel on Direct TV.
Didn't Musk ever hear of HD?
Was surprised at the close proximity of the obviously privately owned boats to the operation. Some with fishing poles.
Loved the one with the Trump flag prominently displayed.
I think the number of fishing craft surprised everybody. But as Gwen Shotwell said, it will be dealt with next time.
Where was the Coast Guard in that recovery? Those were some pretty small private boats out there, so I can only assume that the landing site was way too close to shore. Bet that they won't do that again. It wouldn't make a pinch of difference how far out in the Gulf it is to the recovery ship. I suspect that those two smaller recovery fast boats were deployed from the larger recovery ship.