• 6 months ago
NASA's SpaceX Crew-7's Jasmin Moghbeli, Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov are back on Earth.

Credit: NASA
Transcript
00:00 And it looks like we are getting our very first view of Dragon there on your screen.
00:05 It is streaking through the skies. It continues to re-enter the atmosphere.
00:10 Again, those parachutes have not quite deployed just yet, but once they are through the atmosphere successfully,
00:17 we'll first see the drogue chutes deploy. We're targeting 243 AM Pacific for that.
00:23 And just seconds later at 244 AM, we'll see the main chutes deploy and of course splash down at 247 AM Pacific off the coast of Pensacola.
00:34 Yeah, this view is a thermal view, tracking cam from NASA's WB-57 plane.
00:41 I always love seeing this come through because just the brightness gives you a good idea of...
00:48 And it will start to get dimmer and dimmer as we get closer to the drogue parachute deployment.
00:55 This looks like it is a live view coming from Megan, which is the recovery vessel, positioned a safe distance away from the anticipated splash down site.
01:04 I believe this is the tracking cam, not thermal, more... I'm not sure the right way to describe it,
01:11 but it's a live view camera, but adjusted for the darkness of the night sky.
01:17 So that's why the pixels on the camera might look a little wonky there.
01:23 And even from this view, it's just spectacular. So amazing to see.
01:29 We are expecting the acquisition of signal to be about two minutes from now and splash down again.
01:35 We're less than 10 minutes away from that, seven minutes or so away from splash down of Crew 7
01:41 to wrap up their six-month science and research mission to the International Space Station.
01:47 Dragon, SpaceX, comm check.
01:56 SpaceX, Dragon, we have you loud and clear.
02:02 All right, so that was the voice.
02:05 We have you the same. Expect automated chute deployment.
02:09 That's the voice of Commander Jasmine Mugbelly.
02:13 Automated chute deployment.
02:15 Great to hear her voice on the other side of the comms blackout.
02:20 And a great view here, that thermal cam showing us live re-entry of the Crew 7 team onboard Dragon Endurance.
02:32 And the Corps also did let Jasmine Mugbelly and the Crew 7 crew know that they expect a nominal or normal drogue chute deploy,
02:42 expecting us to maybe begin to get some views of that here in about a minute and a half or two minutes from now.
02:49 And then following that will be the main chutes that deploy.
02:57 Continuing to get some really incredible views of Crew 7.
03:02 Dragon, SpaceX, GPS has converged. Expect nominal altitude for drogue chute deploy.
03:09 All right, good news there.
03:15 That's an indicator that we can expect the drogue parachutes to release about the 350 mile per hour speed,
03:23 about 18,000 feet above the ocean.
03:27 As I mentioned, the streak becomes dimmer just prior to the chute deployment.
03:37 This view here is coming to us from our recovery vessel Megan,
03:43 which is the large vessel that will make its way out to the capsule and ultimately pick it up out of the ocean and place it in the nest onboard.
03:56 Now we should see the drogue pop out here.
04:09 The thermal cam will provide us a much better view of the parachute deployment.
04:14 So we are standing by for those drogues to deploy.
04:30 We should see that begin to happen here any second from now.
04:38 Tracking to about 15 seconds until drogue deploy.
04:42 Once again, Dragon is reading its altitude as well as barometric pressure to determine when the appropriate,
04:53 and there we can see the drogues deploying now, the appropriate time to deploy those drogue parachutes.
05:05 And so these drogue parachutes do help to stabilize and decelerate the vehicle ahead of the mains being deployed a short time after.
05:18 Expecting mains at about 30.
05:21 Alright, that's great news there, indicating that the rate of deceleration with the drogue chutes is as expected.
05:33 The main parachutes will deploy next. That will occur around the 6,500 foot mark above the ocean surface.
05:41 And at that point in time the capsule will be traveling around 120 miles per hour and we can see those main parachutes deploying now.
05:49 Those drogue parachutes will land in the ocean and hopefully we will be able to recover them, but they kind of sink quickly sometimes.
05:58 So the recovery teams will go out and try to recover those drogue parachutes for reuse on future cargo missions.
06:07 We can see here.
06:09 Main chute descent rate nominal.
06:11 Great news there, indicating that the deceleration rate of the...
06:24 Copy 1,000.
06:26 So at this point in time, Jasmine is now transitioning into calling out Dragon's altitude.
06:32 Beautiful thermal view there of the capsule and four healthy mains.
06:37 It's hard to tell on this view because again it is thermal, but the parachutes are orange and white.
06:44 If you've seen a daytime launch, you'll know what they look like and we should be able to see hopefully...
06:50 800 meters.
06:55 Dragon is now 800 meters...
06:56 Copy 800.
06:58 ...above the ocean.
06:59 Now once Dragon splashes down, the capsule will automatically cut the ties to the parachutes.
07:08 This helps in the case where it might be windy. It isn't today. Wind speeds are pretty low at the moment.
07:16 100 meters.
07:18 But if it were a little windy, it would help to ensure that...
07:23 Copy 6.
07:25 ...that Dragon doesn't get destabilized by having the main parachutes.
07:28 And we will also recover those main parachutes from as they float in the ocean as well.
07:33 And standing by for that splashdown. Now about a minute away from that or less.
07:45 400 meters.
07:47 400 meters is what Jasmine just called out.
07:50 So the next call out we'll hear is for 200 meters and then of course splashdown.
07:54 So continuing to get great views of four healthy mains as well as the Crew Dragon with four astronauts on board.
08:02 Bracing at 200.
08:13 And the crew is bracing for splashdown. We do hear that the fast...
08:16 SpaceSense copies 200 and braced.
08:19 The fast boats are en route.
08:21 Standing by for splashdown.
08:40 [Splashdown]
08:41 What a beautiful sight. As you can see on your screen we have...
08:57 Dragon splashdown.
08:59 SpaceSense copies. See you soon.
09:04 Visual and audio confirmation for splashdown of Dragon Endurance.
09:10 It has now returned home and NASA astronaut Jasmine Mogbele along with ESA astronaut Andy Mogensen,
09:18 JAXA astronaut Satoshi Fuokawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are back on Earth
09:25 after an approximately 18 and a half hour return journey from space.
09:31 The SpaceX recovery ship and team has been waiting for Dragon splashdown
09:35 and they are now making their way to that splashdown site.
09:39 Yeah, it's so exciting to see Crew 7 back on Earth after 199 days in space.
09:45 They splashdown at 5.47 a.m. Eastern time and the teams have been ready and waiting
09:51 about three nautical miles away in preparation for splashdown.
09:55 Dragon SpaceX, on behalf of all SpaceX, welcome home.
09:59 We're with you at 4.800.
10:01 SpaceX, on behalf of 4.800, thanks for the ride up and more importantly a safe ride down.
10:15 And thank you to NASA for the excellent support.
10:25 We'll be back on planet Earth.
10:29 And we did hear some words from NASA astronaut Jasmine Mogbele.

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