SpaceX Dragon With Crew-8 Returns To Earth After 235 Days In Space

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SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps all with NASA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.  Credit: NASA

Transcript

00:00And this view again is from the WB-57, that's one of our high altitude planes as it continues

00:07to track Dragon ahead of those drogue parachutes being deployed and shortly after that we'll

00:15see the main parachutes deployed, but we'll stand by for those drogues to go ahead and

00:18get deployed.

00:24We are hearing that Dragon has good pitch and yaw stability, so everything continuing

00:29to go really smoothly, targeting that splashdown at 1229 a.m. pacific time, so just about four

00:38minutes or so from now.

00:44Once again this, oh there we can see that the drogue parachutes, thanks to that WB-57

00:49views, drogues are deployed.

00:54We can see two good-looking drogues, this is a great view from inside the parachute

01:00bay where those drogue parachutes, those drogue chutes will next pull out the main parachutes

01:14and we'll see those four main parachutes open and inflate.

01:29Once again Dragon is, oh we can see deployment there of the four main parachutes, Dragon

01:34is doing this autonomously, releasing each set of parachutes, we can now see those four

01:42main parachutes begin to inflate.

01:52Pretty incredible to see how as those main parachutes inflate, the capsule itself slows

01:59down even more significantly.

02:00Main chute descent rate nominal.

02:06Copy nominal descent rate 1000 meters.

02:11Copy 1000.

02:13We will continue to hear callouts from Commander Matt Dominick of the distance from the water.

02:21Those parachutes really doing their job now, as you mentioned Kate, starting to slow the

02:25spacecraft down even more and more by the time the crew actually does splashdown in

02:30the water, they'll be going about 15-16 miles per hour, so those parachutes really taking

02:36on that air to slow down the spacecraft.

02:39800 meters.

02:41Copy 800.

02:46Like you said, Commander Matt Dominick will continue to report altitude every 200 meters,

02:54so we just heard the 800 meter callout.

03:02And we also heard that the descent rate was nominal or as expected, another good callout.

03:08Good callout there.

03:09Copy 600.

03:27Continuing to get great views from the WB-57 as Crew 8 is nearing splashdown.

03:34400 meters.

03:37Copy 400.

04:02200 meters, bracing.

04:06Copy 200 and braced.

04:11At this point in time, the seats in Dragon have rotated a little bit to help provide

04:18a more comfortable and safer bodily orientation for the crew members as they come closer to

04:27splashdown.

04:28Like we said before, the capsule is going about 15 or 16 miles per hour.

04:40And splashdown.

04:48And Endeavour, we see the same.

04:50On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.

04:53And as you can see on your screen, we do have visual confirmation.

05:00What an incredible ride.

05:09Again, we do have visual confirmation of Crew 8 successfully splashing down after 235 days

05:15in space.

05:16They are now back on Earth.

05:19Dragon Endeavour has returned home and NASA astronauts Matt Dominick, Mike Barrett and

05:24Jeanette Epps and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gerbanken are back on Earth after an approximately

05:3034-hour return journey from space.

05:34As you can see, SpaceX recovery ship and team have been waiting for Dragon splashdown and

05:40they're now making their way to the splashdown location.

05:44Teams have been ready and waiting about three nautical miles away, so it's going to take

05:48about 30 minutes for them to make their way to Matthew, Michael, Jeanette and Alexander.

05:55They're inside Dragon.

05:58We can see there the recovery lights shining some light onto the Dragon capsule.

06:04Now, immediately after splashdown, the Dragon capsule automatically cuts the lines.

06:18SpaceX copies, we see the same.

06:22That was just Commander Matt Dominick reporting the orientation in which Dragon is now in,

06:28which we see there on your screen.

06:30Like I mentioned before, the Dragon capsule automatically cuts.

06:40Copy and concur, stable one.

06:43Dragon automatically cuts the lines to the parachutes, so we will see some of the recovery

06:50team in the fast boats, which are now approaching the splashdown site.

06:54We'll see a couple of those boats divert over to where the parachutes landed as we will

07:00retrieve those from the water.

07:02We will also see a fast boat approach the Dragon capsule.

07:09That team is responsible for making sure that there are no remaining hypergolic residue

07:18on the capsule after it has spent significant time in space.

07:23Those hypergolic propellants are what are used to maneuver Dragon on orbit, and they

07:30are toxic to people here on Earth.

07:35We want to make sure that the recovery team is safe, so we'll see that fast boat approach

07:40and perform initial safety checks to make sure there are no hypergolic residuals there

07:46on the exterior of the capsule.

07:48We'll then see that team begin to rig up the Dragon capsule with some fittings, some

07:55straps that will ultimately be utilized to lift the capsule on board our recovery vessel,

08:01Megan.

08:04And we did have a good view there just a minute ago, and you can kind of see it here.

08:09The water is almost mirror-like.

08:11It's quite, quite smooth.

08:13Very beautiful weather there off the coast of Pensacola for these recovery operations.

08:18So, as you mentioned, they are going to begin to assess capsule safety.

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