SpaceX & NASA - Dragon Crew-1 Mission patch.
May 1, 2021
Image above: SpaceX Crew-1: “Resilience” Crew Dragon Undocking. Image Credits: NASA TV/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft with astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) inside undocked from the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 8:35 p.m. EDT to complete a six-month science mission.
SpaceX Crew-1: “Resilience” Crew Dragon Undocking and Departure
Two very small engine burns separated Crew Dragon from the station, and the spacecraft is slowly maneuvering away from the orbital laboratory into an orbital track that will return the astronaut crew and its cargo safely to Earth.
Once flying free, Crew Dragon Resilience will autonomously execute four departure burns to move the spaceship away from the space station and begin the flight home.
Image above: May 1, 2021: International Space Station Configuration. Four spaceships are attached to the space station including the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo craft, and Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 crew ship and ISS Progress 77 resupply ship. Image Credit: NASA.
The return timeline with approximate times in EDT is:
May 1
8:35 p.m. Departure burn 0
8:40 p.m. Departure burn 1
9:28 p.m. Departure burn 2
10:14 p.m. Departure burn 3
May 2
1:58 a.m. Trunk jettison
2:03 a.m. Deorbit burn begins
2:57 a.m. Crew Dragon splashdown
NASA will continue to provide live coverage until Resilience splashes down off the coast of Florida and the Crew-1 astronauts are recovered from the Gulf of Mexico.
Crew Dragon splashdown. Animation Credit: NASA
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission launched Nov. 15, 2020, on a Falcon 9 rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The astronauts named the spacecraft Resilience, in honor of their families, colleagues, and fellow citizens and highlighting the dedication displayed by the teams involved with the mission and demonstrating that there is no limit to what humans can achieve when they work together. Crew Dragon Resilience docked to the Harmony module’s forward port of the space station Nov. 16, nearly 27 hours after liftoff.
Related links:
Crew-1: https://www.nasa.gov/crew-1
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Video, Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia/NASA TV/SciNews.
Best regards, Orbiter.ch
