I'm sure virtually everyone has heard the Crew-9 mission came to a successful conclusion today, returning to splashdown into the Gulf of America off the Florida Panhandle at 5:57 PM EDT today.
Crew-9 undocked from the ISS and began its nearly 17 hour voyage home at 1:05 AM EDT this morning (Tuesday).
“On behalf of Crew-9, I’d like to say it was a privilege to call the station home, to live and work and be a part of a mission and a team that spans the globe, working together in cooperation for the benefit of humanity,” said NASA astronaut and Crew-9 commander Nick Hague as he and his crew drifted away from the orbiting outpost.
“To our colleagues and dear friends who remain on the station … we know the station’s in great hands. We’re excited to see what you guys are going to accomplish.”
Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who flew to the station last September 28, returned to Earth after having logged 171 days in space. Their crewmates, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, returned with 286 days in space. As you'll remember that's thanks to the decision to send Starliner back to the ground unmanned.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Freedom" with the Crew-9 and Starliner astronauts on board splashes down under four parachutes off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida on March 18, 2025. (Image credit: NASA+)
It was really quite a pretty day in the Gulf up there today and there are eye-popping videos from lots of sources. The skies were a beautiful blue, and photogenic as can be. The four parachutes visible in this photo fall to the Gulf so slowly it almost looked like animation. A pod of dolphins came up to the capsule to see what all the commotion in the water was from.
So what's next? Well, for the ISS, it's business as usual. Crew-10 will be in place for the regular more-or-less six months. Work will resume. For the crew, they'll be given some extra time off - particularly Butch and Suni with their nearly 10 months in space. There's always time off for recuperation, getting used to being in normal gravity and such.
SpaceX looks to be ready to launch a privately-funded, crewed mission we first talked about last August - the first manned flight to go into a polar orbit, called Fram 2. NextSpaceflight shows the launch currently scheduled for Monday Mar 31, 2025 at 11:00 PM EDT.
The four commercial astronauts of the Fram2 mission pose inside a Dragon spacecraft training capsule at SpaceX facilities in Hawthorne, California. From left to right: Eric Philips, Rabea Rogge, Jannicke Mikkelsen and Chun Wang, leader and funder of Fram2's mission. He's the equivalent of Jared Isaacman on Polaris Dawn and his missions. Image credit: SpaceX
I wasn't able to get to my computer until 10 minutes after splashdown, however I did watch the capsule recovery and the egress of the astronauts. The astronauts had all exited only 50 minutes after the splashdown..The operation was very fast and efficient.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Butch and Sunni are back!
ReplyDeleteA thought occurred to me while reading that they splashed down in the Gulf of America. How heavy an unfunded mandate is changing the name there in Florida? That would apply to all of the other States that border the Gulf including my State of Texas.
I haven't seen so much as one word about changing maps and things and with no kids in school, or contact with anything state government-related, I have no idea how the "official world" is responding.
DeleteI was reading coverage on space.com, which is one of the bigger space-related sites, and they were particularly crazy in their coverage. Their title was "Never-'stuck’ Starliner astronauts return to Earth at last with Crew-9 duo in SpaceX Dragon splashdown", seemingly an attempt to attack Trump's narrative. They referred to the splashdown at being in the Gulf of Mexico, and one comment to the post made me laugh, "It's the Gulf of America. Say it. SAY IT!" This morning there's a reply to that comment saying, "Rot in hell, Trumpeter." The complete opposite of my reaction.
drjim here. Booger is taunting me! Yes, I watched it from shortly before the deorbit burn until the end of the broadcast. Stunningly good video, in near real-time. I found the char patterns on the Dragon to be very interesting. It's a written record of the plasma flow around the Dragon, etched into the ablative. Just amazing...!
ReplyDeleteAnd so, the Starliner abortion saga comes to the end with a whimper.
ReplyDeleteBut WAIT ! I hear that Starliner is going to make another go at it. Without major changes, I think Boeing is going to have to find astronauts with crap for brains (and they are VERY few and far between!) to go on the next "mission".
Any volunteers? Everybody got their Life Insurance policies paid up?
(I'd go, but I'm 72, fat, out-of-shape, and no Insurance. You pay me enough, I'm there...) (Right?!)
Seeing as how Ms. Williams had some complaints about medical problems while on ISS, I would be surprised if she gets another flight assignment.
ReplyDelete