Dragon Spacecraft Splashes Down Completing Resupply Mission
The SpaceX Dragon Cargo spacecraft approaches the International Space Station’s Harmony module for a docking on March 23, 2024. Credit: NASA TV
SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down at 1:38 a.m. EDT Tuesday off the coast of Tampa, Florida, marking the return of the company’s 30th contracted cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The spacecraft carried more than 4,100 pounds of valuable scientific experiments and other cargo back to Earth.
Next, four SpaceX Crew-8 members will board the Dragon crew spacecraft on Thursday and undock the vehicle from the forward port of the station’s Harmony module and redock to Harmony’s zenith port. NASA TV coverage will begin on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. Undocking is scheduled at 7:45 a.m. with redocking scheduled at 8:28 a.m.
That will clear the forward port of Harmony for the arrival of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. They are scheduled to launch at 10:34 pm on Monday, May 6, night atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla..
Crew Starts Week With Maintenance, Science Prep, and Health Exams
Expedition 71 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Mike Barratt is pictured relaxing aboard the International Space Station.
Five spacecraft are parked at the International Space Station following yesterday’s undocking of a cargo craft. Aboard the orbiting complex, the Expedition 71 crew is looking ahead to a Dragon relocation mid-week and the arrival of two new crew members next week. On Monday, the septet spent the day conducting routine maintenance, prepping for upcoming science activities, and performing health exams.
A Dragon cargo spacecraft is currently orbiting Earth preparing to splash down off the coast of Florida at approximately 1:38 a.m. EDT Tuesday, April 30. Dragon, which spent about a month docked to the station, departed at 1:10 p.m. Sunday, April 28, and is carrying more than 4,100 pounds of supplies and scientific experiments back to researchers on Earth.
Aboard station, four orbital residents—NASA astronauts Jeanette Epps, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin—are preparing to relocate their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on Thursday, May 2 to the zenith port of the Harmony module. This relocation will make room for the Starliner spacecraft as part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, scheduled to launch Monday, May 6. Starliner will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the station for about a one week stay.
While mission preparations are underway, Dominick set up hardware to perform an eye exam on Epps and measure her blood pressure using a new thigh cuff. The hardware examines whether cuffs on the legs change the way fluid moves around the body. The microgravity environment often causes fluids to shift toward the head, which can result in changes to vision and eye structure. Scientists are exploring whether the new hardware could be useful for astronauts to wear in the future as a normal part of spaceflight.
In the Destiny laboratory module, Barratt swapped out cartridges inside the Materials Science Laboratory and prepared it for an upcoming sample run. The facility is used to investigate the behavior of different types of materials at high temperatures in microgravity. Meanwhile, NASA Flight Engineer Tracy C. Dyson changed out two water resupply tanks in the water storage system, then moved on to perform routine maintenance on the station’s Advanced Resistive Exercise Device, or ARED.
Over in the Roscosmos segment, Grebenkin practiced his piloting techniques during a Pilot-T session. His crewmates, Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub, stowed tools they used during a four-hour and 36-minute spacewalk on Thursday, April 25.
April 28, 2024: International Space Station Configuration. Five spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft Endeavour, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter, the Soyuz MS-25 crew ship, and the Progress 86 and 87 resupply ships.
Following commands from ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, Dragon undocked at 1:10 p.m. EDT from the forward port of the station’s Harmony module. At the time of undocking, the station was flying at an altitude about 260 miles above Earth.
After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida at 1:38 a.m. Tuesday, April 30. NASA will not broadcast the splashdown, but updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.
Dragon arrived at the space station as SpaceX’s 30th commercial resupply services mission for NASA, delivering about 6,000 pounds of research investigations, crew supplies, and station hardware. It was launched March 21 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Dragon Spacecraft Departing Station Live on NASA TV
The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft approaches the space station for a docking to the Harmony module’s space-facing port on March 23, 2024.
NASA’s live coverage of the departure of SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station is underway on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
Following commands from ground controllers at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, Dragon will undock at 1:10 p.m. EDT from the forward port of the station’s Harmony module and fire its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station.
After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will make a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida at 1:38 a.m. Tuesday, April 30. NASA will not broadcast the splashdown, but updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.
Crew Works Dragon, Biotech, and Spacewalk Cleanups
Astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matthew Dominick collect research samples preserved inside science freezers for transferring inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.
The Expedition 71 crew members continue packing the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and preparing for its return to Earth this weekend. Meanwhile, the cosmonauts cleaned up following a successful spacewalk at the International Space Station on Thursday.
Mission managers are monitoring weather conditions off the coast of Florida and are now targeting no earlier than 12:05 p.m. EDT on Sunday for the undocking of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. The NASA astronauts have spent the week packing Dragon with completed science experiments and research samples that will be analyzed in laboratories on Earth. On Friday, Flight Engineers Tracy C. Dyson and Matthew Dominick securely transferred into Dragon mice treated with a genetic therapy that may prevent space-caused vision issues. Scientists on the ground will evaluate the space rodents and compare them to a control group on the ground.
NASA Flight Engineer Jeanette Epps swabbed placards the crew had been touching at regular intervals and collected microbe samples for the Antimicrobial Coatings experiment. The samples were placed in transfer tubes for stowage on Dragon and analysis on Earth. Special coatings on surfaces are being tested for their ability to inhibit microbial growth and prevent bacteria contamination in space and Earth systems protecting astronauts and Earthlings.
NASA Flight Engineer Mike Barratt spent Friday on a pair of biotechnology experiments to boost health on and off the Earth. He started his day preparing bacteria samples for DNA sequencing. Researchers seek to identify antibiotic resistant organisms, how microgravity affects their evolution, and protect space crews. Barratt then spent the afternoon processing cardiac tissue samples printed in the BioFabrication Facility, a 3D bioprinter. Results may allow crews to print meals and medicines and doctors on Earth to manufacture organs for patient surgeries.
The orbital lab’s three cosmonauts slept in on Friday following a four-hour and 36-minute spacewalk to install hardware and science experiments on the station’s Roscosmos segment. This was the second spacewalk that Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub had conducted together. The duo woke up late on Friday and began cleaning and removing components from their Orlan spacesuits. Flight Engineer Alexander Grebenkin, who assisted the spacewalkers on Thursday, retrieved radiation sensors from the spacesuits and documented the recorded data.
The space station is orbiting higher today after the Progress 87 resupply ship, docked to the Zvezda service module’s aft port, fired its engines for nearly seven minutes on Thursday night. The orbital reboost puts the orbital outpost at the correct altitude for the arrival of the next cargo craft from Roscosmos, the Progress 88, due in late May.
