5.05.2022
The four spaceflyers will get to spend a few extra hours in orbit.
The SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts don their spacesuits on the space station on April 21, 2022. (Image credit: NASA)
SpaceX's Crew-3 astronaut mission will get to spend a few extra hours aboard the International Space Station (ISS), if all goes according to plan.
Crew-3's Dragon capsule had been scheduled to depart the ISS on Wednesday evening (May 4) and return to Earth the following day. But things have been pushed back slightly, NASA officials announced today (May 3).
"Teams from @NASA & @SpaceX now are targeting #Crew3 undocking at 1:05 am Thurs, May 5 from @Space_Station. Splashdown off of Florida's coast is planned about 12:37 am Fri, May 6. The new undocking time allows for shorter phasing & more time to review the latest forecast info," NASA human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders said via Twitter today. (The times she referenced are EDT.)
"Weather is being watched closely to confirm selected primary & alternate sites are good for return, and we'll conduct another weather review about 24 hours before undocking to determine whether we are GO to proceed. More to come," she added in another tweet.
Crew-3 launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 11 and arrived at the International Space Station that same day, delivering NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Matthias Maurer to the orbiting lab.
Marshburn commands the orbiting lab's current Expedition 67 mission, but he's getting set to hand the reins over to Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. That will officially happen during a change-of-command ceremony on Wednesday (May 4) at 2:35 p.m. EDT (1835 GMT), which you can watch here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
There are currently two SpaceX missions at the ISS; Crew-4 arrived on April 27. Like their Crew-3 counterparts, the Crew-4 astronauts — NASA's Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins and ESA's Samantha Cristoforetti — will spend about six months aboard the orbiting lab.
The ISS has been a hub of Dragon activity lately. The private Ax-1 mission, which SpaceX flew for the Houston company Axiom Space, brought four private astronauts to the orbiting lab on April 9 for a 15-day stay.
Quelle: SC
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As Station Crew Readies to Return to Earth, NASA Sets TV Coverage
NASA will provide live coverage of the upcoming return activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission. The mission will depart from the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Tom Marshburn, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting 12:43 a.m. EDT on Friday, May 6, for the splashdown and conclusion of the Crew-3 flight, wrapping up a nearly six-month science mission. The spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the space station to begin the journey home at 1:05 a.m. on Thursday, May 5.
The return and related activities will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
In advance of the return of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Crew-3 astronauts will share farewell remarks, and station commander Tom Marshburn of NASA will hand over command of the station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev.
The Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance by crew, will autonomously undock, depart the space station, and splash down at one of seven targeted landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. Endurance also will return important and time-sensitive research to Earth.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 return coverage is as follows (all times are Eastern):
Wednesday, May 4
2:35 p.m. – Crew-3 farewell remarks and change of command ceremony aboard the space station
11 p.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins for 11:20 p.m. hatch closing
Thursday, May 5
12:45 a.m. – Coverage begins for the 1:05 a.m. undocking. NASA will have continuous coverage from undocking to splashdown
11:53 p.m. – Deorbit burn
Friday, May 6
12:43 a.m. – Splashdown off the coast of Florida
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 6.05.2022
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Crew-3 Astronauts Splashdown Ending Six-Month Mission
NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Tom Marshburn, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer splashed down safely in the SpaceX Dragon Endurance in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, at 12:43 p.m. EDT after 177 days in space.
Teams on the Shannon recovery ship, including two fast boats, now are in the process of securing Dragon and ensuring the spacecraft is safe for the recovery effort. As the fast boat teams complete their work, the recovery ship will move into position to hoist Dragon onto the main deck of Shannon with the astronauts inside. Once on the main deck, the crew will be taken out of the spacecraft and receive medical checks before a helicopter ride to board a plane for Houston.
SpaceX brings 4 astronauts home, then launches 53 satellites
SpaceX has returned four astronauts from the International Space Station with a midnight splashdown off the Florida coast
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- SpaceX brought four astronauts home with a midnight splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, capping the busiest stretch yet for Elon Musk’s taxi service.
The three U.S. astronauts and one German in the capsule were bobbing off the Florida coast, near Tampa, less than 24 hours after leaving the International Space Station. NASA expected to have them back in Houston later in the morning.
“That was a great ride,” said Raja Chari, the capsule commander. As for the reintroduction to gravity, he noted: “Only one complaint. These water bottles are super heavy.”
NASA’s Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and the European Space Agency’s Matthias Maurer, were out of the capsule within an hour of splashdown, waving and giving thumbs-up as they were hustled away on rolling chaises for medical checks.
Their departure from the space station Thursday was bittersweet, as they embraced the seven astronauts remaining there.
“It’s the end of a six-month mission, but I think the space dream lives on,” Maurer said.
SpaceX brought up their U.S. and Italian replacements last week, after completing a charter trip to the station for a trio of businessmen earlier in April.
That amounts to two crew launches and two splashdowns in barely a month. Musk’s company has now launched 26 people into orbit in less than two years, since it started ferrying astronauts for NASA. Eight of those 26 were space tourists.
SpaceX's William Gerstenmaier, a vice president, acknowledges it's "a pretty exciting time."
Barely five hours after splashdown, the company founded by Musk in 2002 launched a fresh batch of its own internet satellites known as Starlinks from Cape Canaveral. There were 53 of the mini flat-panel satellites in this predawn load.
“Satellites are nice, but flying people are a little special and a little bit different, and the team here sure understands that,” he told reporters. "There’s a sense of relief and and a sense of accomplishment that you know you’ve done something good."
NASA is more impressed than ever, given SpaceX's unprecedented pace. The only problem of note in the latest flight was a mechanical nut that wiggled loose and floated away from the SpaceX capsule following Thursday's undocking. Officials assured everyone it would not pose a danger to the space station.
“Look at all this work in the last month," said Kathy Lueders, NASA's space operations mission chief. “I really want to personally thank SpaceX for just, wow, just performing such seamless operations on all those missions.”
The astronauts said their mission was highlighted by the three visitors and their ex-astronaut escort who dropped by in April, opening up NASA’s side of the station to paying guests after decades of resistance.
On the down side, they had to contend with a dangerous spike in space junk after Russia blew up a satellite in a missile test in mid-November. More than 1,500 pieces of shrapnel spread across Earth's orbit for years to come.
While the war in Ukraine has caused tensions between the U.S. and Russia, the astronauts have stood by their Russian crewmates, and vice versa. Flight controllers in Houston and Moscow also continued to cooperate as always, according to NASA officials.
As he relinquished command of the space station earlier this week, Marshburn called it “a place of peace” and said international cooperation would likely be its lasting legacy. Russian Oleg Artemyev, the new commander, also emphasized the “peace between our countries, our friendship” in orbit and described his crewmates as brothers and sisters.
Up there now are three Russians, three Americans and one Italian.
It was Marshburn’s third spaceflight, and the first for the three returning with him. Chari and Barron’s next stop could be the moon; they are among 18 U.S. astronauts picked for NASA’s Artemis moon-landing program. Two others in that elite group are now at the space station.
Quelle: abcNews
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NASA, ESA Astronauts Safely Return to Earth
Editor's Note: This release was updated on May 6 to clarify the Crew-3 mission was the first spaceflight for Barron, Chari, and Maurer.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts aboard the Dragon Endurance spacecraft safely splashed down Friday in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, completing the agency’s third long-duration commercial crew mission to the International Space Station. The international crew of four spent 177 days in orbit.
NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Tom Marshburn, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted splashdown at 12:43 a.m. EDT. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels recovered the spacecraft and astronauts. After returning to shore, the astronauts will fly back to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“NASA’s partnership with SpaceX has again empowered us to deliver a crew safely to the space station and back, enabling groundbreaking science that will help our astronauts travel farther out into the cosmos than ever before. This mission is just one more example that we are truly in the golden era of commercial spaceflight,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Kayla, Raja, Tom, and Matthias, thank you for your service and welcome home!”
The Crew-3 mission launched Nov. 10 on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Nearly 24-hours after liftoff, Nov. 11, Endurance docked to the Harmony module’s forward space station port. The astronauts undocked from the same port at 1:05 a.m. May 5, to begin the trip home.
Barron, Chari, Marshburn, and Maurer traveled 75,060,792 miles during their mission, spent 175 days aboard the space station, and completed 2,832 orbits around Earth. Marshburn has logged 339 days in space over his three flights. The Crew-3 mission was the first spaceflight for Barron, Chari, and Maurer.
Throughout their mission, the Crew-3 astronauts contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations. In addition, they conducted three spacewalks to perform station maintenance and upgrades outside the space station. This brought the total number of spacewalks for Marshburn to five, while Chari and Barron have each completed two, and Maurer one.
Crew-3 built on previous work investigating how fibers grow in microgravity, used hydroponic and aeroponic techniques to grow plants without soil or other growth material, captured imagery of their retinas as part of an investigation that could detect eye changes of astronauts in space automatically in the future, and performed a demonstration of technology that provides measurements of biological indicators related to disease and infection, among many other scientific investigations. The astronauts took hundreds of photos of Earth as part of the Crew Earth Observation investigation, one of the longest-running investigations aboard the space station, which helps track natural disasters and changes to our home planet.
Endurance will return to Florida for inspection and processing at SpaceX’s Dragon Lair, where teams will examine the spacecraft’s data and performance throughout the flight.
The Crew-3 flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its return to Earth follows on the heels of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 launch, which docked to the station April 27, beginning another science expedition.
The goal of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station. This already has provided additional research time and has increased the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s microgravity testbed for exploration, including helping NASA prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Quelle: NASA