Back in May, we got to see NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley successfully launch from their SpaceX Crew Dragon rocket on their way to the International Space Station. With the mission being (overall) a resounding success, the time has finally arrived for them both to now return to planet Earth.
So, if you have any interest in space travel, you’re going to want to check this out! If, for no other reason, than the fact that this will be the first ‘splashdown’ seen conducted by NASA in (give or take) 45-years!
NASA Splashdown
With the Crew Dragon craft successfully detaching itself from the ISS yesterday (as you can watch in the Twitter clip below), it is currently making its way back to Earth ‘on a perfectly safe trajectory’. There is, however, many more steps to go through before it will successfully land (or splash) back down.
Firstly, there will be a number of very minor course adjustments to be made. Secondly, part of the craft (referred to colloquially as the ‘trunk’) will have to detach to successfully reveal the all-important heatshield. Thirdly, the craft must fire boosters while re-entering Earth’s atmosphere to reduce its speed by around 160mph. After that, however, it’s just a deployment of the parachute and, all going well, it should safely arrive (splashdown) just off the Florida coast at 7:42 pm (BST) today.
Yes, I am missing a fair bit out there, but it gives you a solid ‘gist’ of what to expect over the next 7 or so hours (depending on when you’re reading this).
"Dragon departing." The @SpaceX Dragon Endeavour undocked and separated from @Space_Station. @AstroBehnken & @Astro_Doug are on their way home to planet Earth. pic.twitter.com/VHYSblw3kU
— NASA (@NASA) August 1, 2020
Watch It Here!
With the ‘splashdown’ scheduled to occur at around 7:42 pm (British Standard Time), if you want to catch this when things start to get particularly interesting, we advise you tune in around 5 pm. Albeit, it should be noted that a hurricane is providing NASA with a few headaches as it’s moving somewhat close to the intended landing site. So note that timeframes are definitely (at any moment) subject to change.
Where can you watch it? Well, given that this is such an amazing event, we’ve copied in the Livestream for you below. So be sure to check it out and that you welcome Doug and Bob back home!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
