Expedition 50 astronauts Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) and Shane Kimbrough of NASA released the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station‘s robotic arm at 5:11 a.m. EDT.
With the spacecraft a safe distance from the station, SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, California, will command its deorbit burn around 10 a.m. The capsule will splash down at about 10:54 a.m. in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery forces will retrieve the capsule and its more than 5,400 pounds of cargo. The cargo includes science samples from human and animal research, external payloads, biology and biotechnology studies, physical science investigations and education activities.
The deorbit burn and splashdown will not be broadcast on NASA TV.
NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the non-profit organization that manages research aboard the U.S. national laboratory portion of the space station, will receive time-sensitive samples and begin working with researchers to process and distribute them within 48 hours of splashdown.
Dragon, the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return to Earth intact, launched Feb. 19 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and arrived at the station Feb. 23 for the company’s 10th NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission.
If NASA wants to get youth involved and excited about Science engineering and Space .. TELEVISE as much as possible .. Ge the reentry on film the parachute deployment and splashdown .. Do the Whole DEAL .. From Launch to recovery … Kids will eat it up .. adults will as well .. and it shows ENGINEERING in action .. Cool stuff why not televise ALL OF IT ??
This is exactly what I was thinking. They should outfit the space craft with many cameras and broadcast it. It baffles me that this is not being implemented yet.
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I agree with Eric, I think it would be great to have more of this televised and made prominent on social media.
I did not know about Dragon and its’ intact resupply capacities until reading this blog. I will tell others to help spread the word.
Off topic but just read this morning about Voyager 1 firing its’ thrusters for the first time since 1980.
NASA does it right again.
Thanks Terry for the comment and for keeping up with NASA!