{"id":24856,"date":"2021-09-18T21:55:44","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T13:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/inspiration4-and-all-civilian-crew-return-to-earth-with-splashdown-off-florida-coast\/"},"modified":"2021-09-18T21:55:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T13:55:44","slug":"inspiration4-and-all-civilian-crew-return-to-earth-with-splashdown-off-florida-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/inspiration4-and-all-civilian-crew-return-to-earth-with-splashdown-off-florida-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration4 and all-civilian crew return to Earth with splashdown off Florida coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Inspiration4 mission, flown by Crew Dragon Resilience<\/em>, has concluded its three-day mission with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Resilience<\/em> splashed down off the coast of Cape Canaveral at 7:06 PM EDT (23:06 UTC), about 50 minutes after it began its deorbit burn. Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) had been filed for seven areas off of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida for Saturday evening and a backup opportunity early Sunday morning, but weather and sea conditions allowed landing to be made in the primary area at the first opportunity.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Return of Dragon Resilience<\/em><\/p>\n

Crew Dragon Resilience<\/em> launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday and reached a near-circular orbit at an altitude of 575 km above Earth and inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. This is a similar altitude to the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope and is significantly higher than the International Space Station which is currently in a 430 km orbit. It represents the highest altitude a crewed mission has reached since the early Space Shuttle missions in support of Hubble in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon Resilience lift off from LC-39A on Wednesday evening \u2013 via Julia Bergeron for NSF<\/p>\n

The mission, flown as part of a fundraiser for St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital, was commanded by billionaire and pilot Jared Isaacman, with Dr. Sian Proctor, geophysicist and pilot, mission specialist Chris Sembroski, and cancer survivor and St. Jude physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux as crewmates.<\/p>\n

See Also<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Inspiration4 Updates<\/li>\n
  • SpaceX Missions Section<\/li>\n
  • L2 SpaceX Section<\/li>\n
  • Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The day before the deorbit burn, Resilience<\/em> lowered its orbital altitude to approximately 365 km and aligned its ground track with the landing sites off the Florida coast.<\/p>\n

    Dragon\u2019s forward hatch was closed at 5:32 AM EDT on the day of the landing. After the crew donned their launch and entry suits, they took their seats, with the seats then being moved into position for the reentry and landing.<\/p>\n

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    On landing day, the deorbit sequence began with the separation of the \u201cclaw\u201d that provided connections between the Dragon capsule and its trunk section, followed by the jettison of the trunk itself on time at 6:11 PM EDT.<\/p>\n

    The trunk houses systems including the spacecraft\u2019s solar panels, but is not designed to be recovered. For the remainder of its mission, Resilience<\/em> used onboard batteries to power its systems.<\/p>\n

    Five minutes after trunk separation, the spacecraft fired the four Draco thrusters mounted on its forward bulkhead to perform the deorbit burn. This lasted for 15 minutes, ending at 6:31 PM EDT. Following the burn flight controllers confirmed to the crew that it had been completed successfully and Resilience<\/em> was on course for splashdown.<\/p>\n

    Shortly after the deorbit burn ended, Dragon\u2019s nosecone was closed and the spacecraft reoriented itself to point its blunt heat shield in the direction of flight to absorb the extreme heat of reentry.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n