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  • all stations on Dragon.

  • One minute until configure for terminal count.

  • 15 seconds.

  • Go for it.

  • Dragon doesn't count out.

  • 5432 Ignition.

  • Welcome to our live coverage of Space six's demo.

  • One mission If you're just joining us.

  • Dragon has performed its final departure Burns from the international space station and is on its way back home to US Chase Mission actually began back on March 2nd when Dragon launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

  • Following that successful launch, Dragon arrived at the space station and docked with the orbiting lab.

  • On March 3rd, Dragons returned to Earth will mark the third completion of Space X's first demonstration mission for NASA's commercial crew program.

  • While there are no astronauts onboard Dragon today, this demonstration mission represents an important milestone as we approach our first crewed mission later this year.

  • Earlier today, Dragon powered up from sleep mode and began its departure procedures and system checks.

  • That's right.

  • Then the spacecraft autonomously undocked from the International Space station at 11:32 p.m. Pacific time just yesterday on March 7th.

  • Pretty sure it's March 8th now we've been here all night, and then it began a series of departure burns to move away from the station.

  • We're gonna be bringing you live coverage of the rest of the mission in the moment that dragon jettisons its trunk to the de orbit burn all the way that splash down, which we're targeting for 5:45 a.m. Pacific time with Dragon scheduled to splash down about 230 statute miles east of Kennedy Space Center.

  • One interesting historical note for you real quick.

  • It's actually been nearly 50 years to the day since Apollo nine is the last spacecraft built for humans.

  • Just splashed down in the Atlantic.

  • It completed its mission back on March 13th 1969.

  • So a pretty big day in a pretty big historical note here, unfortunately, due to a communications blackout when I could be able to show you every step of dragons journey home.

  • But we're gonna be bringing you live status updates as it goes through the phase of things like your bitch burn and the trunk separation.

  • And we've been getting pretty great views from the recovery ships out there, so we should have good use of dragon as it comes down towards the water Now, in this next phase of the mission, Dragon has a series of steps that complete before it returns home, First Dragon will jettison its trunk.

  • Like Dan just said, Which is the cylindrical unpressurized part of the spacecraft?

  • We do this as the trunk is no longer needed to complete the mission.

  • Yeah, that's gonna be coming up in about 15 minutes or so.

  • Like we said, we can't show every part of this for the mission, but we are gonna be listening to the flight control teams.

  • Can we have one here?

  • Right behind us and Hawthorne.

  • And they're the ones basically monitoring all dragon systems just like they've been doing since it lifted off six days ago.

  • It's flown by so far.

  • It really has.

  • We're gonna be listening in and giving you the updates as they come in.

  • Now, if you've been watched following along so far this morning, you might have seen us on the earlier Webcast last night.

  • This morning it's hard to tell what time of day it is at this point.

  • But you saw Dragon complete of a series of burns.

  • There were a number of departure burns away from the International space station that dragging completed, which allowed the spacecraft to move further and further away from the station in a series of choreographed maneuvers.

  • Everything went really well, and like we said now, we're just awaiting for that trunk separation on Dhe.

  • After that, we'll have a pretty exciting de orbit burn and a splash down, so we're looking forward to all that at this point.

  • The Dragon Spacecraft is well below the international space station and quite a few kilometers ahead of it at this point.

  • And that's just to make sure once that trunk separated, it's not on the same orbital plane, basically, as the international space station is.

  • So that will be the next major milestone coming up and then that de orbit burn, which will go through all those times in just a little bit.

  • But it's gonna be about a 15 minute firing of those throats, those thrusters on Dragon, and that's just basically gonna take it out of orbit.

  • So it's gonna fire the thrusters until that trajectory is basically pointing it right back down in the ocean in the Atlantic, where we're landing a spacecraft built for humans for the first time in 50 years.

  • This is gonna be really exciting morning, and like I said, we'll be bringing you some pretty great views.

  • The sun is up already over on the East Coast, so we'll have a nice day time splashdown.

  • As someone who has seen this specific vehicle get built over the last couple of years, it's pretty incredible, too.

  • Like I mentioned earlier in today's Web, Castillo actually see the astronauts on board the International space station, floating in it out of the capsule as they were opening the hatch.

  • And that was very exciting.

  • And then, upon the departure, burns earlier to see the imagery from the station.

  • As Dragon was leaving, it was just incredible.

  • We had some amazing shots, and we've seen the artistic renderings for a couple of years now, what it would look like when Dragon was on station and to finally see it.

  • I was just a wonderful moment in terms of those of us that have had so many hours put into this spacecraft.

  • It almost didn't look, really, Yeah, yeah, when I actually saw it flying out there.

  • But I mean, since since it's a part of that happened early in the crew's day onboard the space station, so they've since moved on to a bunch of other tests.

  • They actually woke up about an hour before her dragon on doctors.

  • They're operating on Greenwich Mean Time so early in the morning for them.

  • But they did offer some great words as Dragon undocked and flew away.

  • Once it was outside of the approach of lip sorts, about a kilometer or so away from the International space station and his Kate said it executed all of its departure burns and executed for departure burns following that initial separation, basically taking it out in front and then up around, and then finally out beneath three International Space Station, where it's now on its orbit, awaiting this trunk separation and eventually the de orbit burn.

  • So in terms of space X history, this demonstration mission is incredibly important, as it's like I said, the demonstration of our crew program, interestingly enough, the Dragon spacecraft that's hanging behind me here and Hawthorne, California Space six headquarters is similarly the same demonstration mission of our cargo program that we've been operating for NASA for the last couple of years in terms of the cargo resupply missions to the International space station.

  • So who knows if the demo one capsule will also be hanging behind us here in a Hawthorne?

  • I don't think we have the structural support for that.

  • But in terms of what you see behind me, it's similar in terms of historical referencing for the importance of today's mission.

  • And that capsule actually already has another mission on the books for it.

  • Space X is planning to use it in their asset abort test, coming a little bit later this year.

  • That'll be between Demo one, which we're about to wrap up today, and demo to which will be the first flight that we actually have.

  • Our astronauts onboard that spacecraft Bob Banking and Doug Hurley, the two NASA astronauts, will be the 1st 1 to take Dragon into space in the ass on a board that will be a pretty cool test.

  • I wouldn't want to be involved with thinks that's a lot of G forces, but it'll be really, really important for us to be able to demonstrate the ability for the capsule to leave the vehicle in an urgent need to do so.

  • So we're all looking forward to that that test flight as it's also something we've been working towards for the last couple of years.

  • And yeah, that should be coming up in a couple of months here.

  • Yeah, and that'll be.

  • That'll be the second before you guys have done because you did a paddleboard test already with Dragon Spacecraft.

  • So basically just really putting the vehicle through all of the faces, All these different abort test missions like this one right now, all ultimately with that goal of sending humans to the international space station Onek drag something else really interesting about the today's mission and, in fact, the the commercial crew program going forward in terms of space, actors approach to landing the capsules.

  • We are landing them in the in the Atlantic like we mentioned earlier, where, as the commercial exists, that cargo resupply Mission Dragon capsule pack capsules have all landed in the Pacific.

  • So today is really exciting.

  • We're really pumped to bring you footage of our recovery team as we pull Dragon out of the Atlantic Ocean.

  • It's a it's a lot of firsts today.

  • It's been a lot.

  • It's a lot been a lot of firsts all week and to say the adrenaline has been pumping around here is an understatement.

  • Yeah, we even I mean, we even had a crowd earlier this morning behind us gathered down at the control.

  • And there's even more now.

  • Yeah, now, Now it's well, it's 4 30 in the morning here on the West Coast, but the crowd is already starting together here at Space X headquarters.

  • But interesting.

  • No, yeah, normally, those cargo dragons landing over in the Pacific on While this vehicle ultimately designed for crew, it's also carrying some cargo carried about £400 of cargo up to the International space station, and it's been packed with a little over £300 for the return trip home.

  • And that's broken out across a couple of different areas.

  • One of the more interesting ones and one of the ones NASA's really keen on is it's bringing back where we call utilization.

  • So some science, and it actually has to bags basically like coolers on board that are packed with these cold bricks that were able to put science samples.

  • And so the ones that are coming back home today, using some of the human research projects on board the International space station is way like to say the astronauts are experiments themselves who was poking and prodding while they're up there just to see how the human body changes in reacts in micro gravity.

  • And a lot of the samples from a couple of those projects are coming home on Dragon today, also bringing home a couple of radiation monitors.

  • And one thing that our program manager, Kirk Charm, and for the space station program noted.

  • It's also gonna have a fan pump separator on it.

  • That's actually a piece.

  • It's a piece of the space suits, the emu's of the extravehicular mobility units.

  • I'm from NASA.

  • Way too many acronyms on.

  • It's a piece that actually failed on orbit sometime back, bringing it home to take a look at it since replaces a spare unit.

  • We do have some space.

  • Mark's coming up in March so very busy time in space right now.

  • But right now kind of all focused.

  • I'm watching this dragon come home.

  • So the next milestone that we have coming up in about seven minutes eyes the trunk separation.

  • We will take a break for a few minutes while we await that.

  • So stay tuned and we'll see you in a couple e.

  • So right now we're waiting to hear for that trunk separation again.

  • We are expecting to get that call just on the internal nets.

  • Any moment now.

  • That'll be the next major milestone.

  • Then we'll be on to de orbit.

  • Burn.

  • Exactly.

  • So we should have that call out any minute now.

  • A cz we await for trunk separation.

  • This is the last thing that dragon has to do before it is able to re enter the Earth's atmosphere and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.

  • That's right, the trump not coming home, but the rest of the dragon capsule.

  • The more important part is gonna be coming home by the other stuff that Dragon's gonna do before does that final reentry is close that nose cone, and we'll get to a little bit of that soon.

  • But basically, that nose cone's going to protect that top part of the Dragon spacecraft, the docking adapter and also the guidance and navigation and control sensors.

  • So that's one of the last major milestones.

  • That's another kind of departure from the cargo dragon, which that nose cone gets jettisoned, uh, during the launch during the launch phase, but with crude dragging, keeping the nose going all the way through it helps in the actual reusability of the crew dragon for future missions.

  • Now, that trunk section is unpressurized, and we are able to use it to transport cargo on the way up to the international space station.

  • But everything that comes back from station is put into the pressurized section so way are able to jettison that trunk as it's no longer needed and were able to shed that extra weight.

  • And I think we just heard Trump separation.

  • All right.

  • So hopefully we'll be able to bring you visual here shortly.

  • Actually, no, we're too far away from station at the moment, so yeah, eso next up is gonna be the spacecraft using some forward thrusters to form the de orbit burn.

  • This is gonna be really major step, because once that deorbit burn happens, you're coming home.

  • You like you're you're leaving orbit.

  • You're coming back to Earth.

  • That's gonna put Dragon on a trajectory for that return.

  • The burn will last about 15 minutes once it starts, So we're gonna again continue to stand by.

  • This is kind of the calm before the storm, if you will, where we're just waiting for things to really get into motion Dragons going to pretty soon do that de orbit burn and then following that it only takes about 45 minutes or so until it's in the water down in the Atlantic and ready to get picked up by the team's on the boats out there.

  • So once again, we're gonna continue to stand by.

  • We're gonna bring you these updates as they come in by one more milestone down.

  • Just a few more to go on the dragon's home.

  • And so again, right now, we're just standing by for this deorbit burn to start.

  • We are expecting it to start in about a minute or so, and then after that, it's gonna take a little over 15 minutes to complete.

  • Yeah, so we have already jettison the trunk as you heard us talk about a couple of minutes ago.

  • That was the last thing Dragon needed to do before it is able to read.

  • Enter the Earth's atmosphere on Dhe like we said that that will be about a 15 minute burn and then we will have a parachute deployment and splash down after that.

  • So, like Dan said kind of the calm before the storm, we're gonna have a lot of activity coming up once we do pass through the re entry burn.

  • But at this point, we should be getting confirmation of the de orbit burn in a couple of seconds here.

  • That's right.

  • And once the de orbit burn is complete, it's just about trying to do quick math in my head as I look at everything.

  • But it's just about 40 minutes or so until Dragon scheduled to be back down in the water.

  • So it's a pretty quick ride from being in outer space to be in right back down in the ocean.

  • And we just heard confirmation of the deorbit burn.

  • So, like we said, this will last about 15 minutes.

  • So do our burn has begun.

  • At this point, Dragon has begun to re enter.

  • The Earth's atmosphere is going to get a little toasty, but we're excited Thio for this to happen, as it is the next step, the next milestone and its journey home.

  • It's right and again, ultimate destination down in the Atlantic Ocean and their boats standing by.

  • We'll go through all the recovery forces and everything on site.

  • But there is one main recovery boat it's to go searcher on.

  • That's gonna have all of the space X recovery teams who are responsible for actually going out and picking the capsule up out of the water.

  • That is a view of the ghost searcher that was This is actually a camera view from one of the other boats that's in the area of the Go Navigator that has the combined NASA team on board as well.

  • S o once we actually have crew on board, everyone's gonna be on one boat, so it'll be a little bit tighter quarters.

  • But you'll have obviously the space six people to go and recover the capsule.

  • And then the NASA people typically also bring along the flight docks and the nurses anybody who's ever seen a landing and so use over and Kazakhstan is familiar with that.

  • Once the crew comes home after about a six month period, it's important we get a quick medical check out with them, just take the vitals, make sure they're doing okay and help manage as they re adapt our its gravity.

  • For the first time in you know, up to six months or longer, so all everyone will be on one boat.

  • But for today we do have two votes, so we'll get some additional views.

  • Hopefully from those different cameras as we get to watch Dragon come down.

  • But for now, we are in that deorbit burn.

  • So we got a couple more minutes until that is complete.

  • And then we're one step closer to Dragon being back.

  • Yeah, So while Dragon is re entering the earth's atmosphere, we're gonna pause for a few minutes until they do orbit.

  • Burn completes.

  • So be sure to stick around and we'll see you in a few minutes, which what?

  • So right now we're about halfway through that de orbit burn.

  • So and we expected to last about 15 minutes and 20 seconds.

  • The visiting vehicle officer all the way back in Houston.

  • I was just reporting to the station flight director again that we're about halfway through.

  • We're continuing to get a couple of views from the boats and again, those air cameras that are gonna be tracking dragon once it's coming down under those parachutes on.

  • We're also starting to get it.

  • Looks like this is a view from a W B 57 airplane, and so we have a number of assets out there off the Florida coast.

  • Again, there's two boats or two ships, rather both with tracking cameras on board and NASA also flying.

  • It's W B 57 aircraft, typically used for high altitude weather research and other science missions of it.

  • It has a camera fixed on it and should hopefully give us abuse of dragon coming down under those parachutes.

  • So there, on your screen you see a beautiful shot of Go Searcher, which is our primary recovery vessel.

  • Uh, they're on the front part of the ship.

  • You can see what would essentially be the crew's quarters during the weight they could be out to see, depending on how rough the waves are for a couple of weeks to just a couple of days, depending on the re or the splash down point.

  • So they're coming into view on the right hand side of your screen.

  • At the top is actually the helly pad for helicopters.

  • The land we need Thio take the astronauts to shore quicker than just having them right along on this ship and really something that I just absolutely love about this vessel is underneath that helipads are actually medical quarters.

  • So we're able to get the astronauts checked out immediately after digressing from the capsule, and we're able to check them out there and give them a warm welcome.

  • Not on land yet, obviously.

  • But it's just such an incredible vehicle there that were able to to sustain so much activity.

  • Once the while, we're waiting for the astronauts splash down and then, obviously, once they're on board, it's also important to note.

  • So right now, the teams are about 200 or so give or take nautical miles off the coast.

  • That won't be the case when we're bringing crew members back that landing zone much closer, and I think it typically ranges out about 20 to 24 nautical miles away from the port.

  • So that gives them the capability to then get back in within just a couple of hours instead of the little over a day that it's looking like it's gonna take teams to bring Dragon back after this mission.

  • But there we have some views from Dragon as it is re entering the atmosphere.

  • It's pretty dark in space.

  • We're still in the midst of that de orbit burn.

  • We're expecting that to take about five more minutes.

  • So that's that's pretty unique.

  • Getting views from the spacecraft while that de orbit burn is still underway again, this is just the final maneuver that final firing those Draco thrusters just to bring Dragon out of orbit and set it up on a trajectory to ultimately splash down over there in the Atlantic.

  • For as you were just seeing, the recovery teams are standing by ready and waiting to receive.

  • And again, this de orbit burn lasting plant.

  • Alas, about 15 minutes and 20 seconds.

  • This is just ultimately carry dragon out of its circular orbits.

  • Right now, it's been in a circular orbit just beneath the space station's orbit.

  • Call it co elliptic orbit for the last several hours in this deorbit burn is gonna radically change that plan orbit basically setting it up to intersect back down with the earth back down there in the water where the recovery teams are waiting.

  • Now that we have a full view of the recovery vessel on the very right side of your screen, you can see a portion of the ship that we weren't able to see before.

  • And that's actually the portion of the ship where once the dragon capsule is close enough, it will be lifted up out of the water by that vertical piece that you see there.

  • It'll actually actuate out over the water and lift the dragon capsule up out of the ocean and then bring it back onto the boat and set it down into its nest.

  • Eso pretty cool.

  • This is This is new, a new technology that we've installed on this ship specifically for our crew dragon missions.

  • So it's way said before.

  • This is a demonstration mission.

  • And while a recovery team has been practicing for recovery operations, this is obviously the first time that they will be practicing with a vehicle that's coming from space.

  • So we're all very excited to be bringing you live coverage.

  • As all of this unfolds over the next hour or so and give you a timeline of that recovery period.

  • It's expected to take a little under an hour.

  • So for the team's actually have the capsule back up on the boat, which situation where there's a crew on board?

  • That's about that hour to get the crew out of the water and onto the boats so they could do all their initial medical checks and everything else that we typically do after crew members of returning from these long duration missions, the waves looking pretty calm, though, looking like really good conditions out there in the Atlantic again, they're a little over 200 nautical miles off the coast of Florida.

  • Ultimately, be bound back for Port Canaveral, where the the spacecraft's gonna get brought back in and handed over the space X teams there where they're gonna begin processing and pretty much getting ready to turn it around for that ass on a board.

  • We've been monitoring the recovery weather conditions over the last several days, and now that recovery day has has come upon us, we can see that we have beautiful skies on dhe, really, in my unprofessional nautical knowledge, relatively calm seas by my eyes.

  • But you know, it's really difficult to be able to predict what the weather is going to be like at see very far in advance.

  • So we're all very happy to be able to have clear imagery of the recovery team as we as we make progress here.

  • I feel like we've lucked out with Florida weather so far on on this mission.

  • All right, we're here, and there's about one minute left in this deorbit burn.

  • So just about done with that.

  • This is just that final maneuver to begin bringing Dragon out of space on down to the ocean.

  • Still getting a couple of views from on board the Dragon spacecraft.

  • That's what you're looking at, right?

  • Right now, we're just going to stand by listen for how the de orbit burn went.

  • Should be wrapping up momentarily.

  • So, like Dan said, we are awaiting confirmation of the conclusion of the de orbit burn.

  • It's been going on for the last several minutes, and like we said before, Dragon departed Space Station earlier today performed a number of departure burns.

  • And now well, you are hopefully just exiting the final burner.

  • That's the reentry burn on there on the left hand side of your screen, you can see our recovery vessel waiting for splashdown of Dragon.

  • Once we exit this once we exit the reentry burn, we will have parachute deployment.

  • Um, the 1st 1 of those will be the drogue chutes, the smaller shoots that slowed the vehicle down, followed by the main parachute deployment.

  • And that will slow it down even further, allowing it to come to a a slower velocity as it approaches the surface of the ocean.

  • And we are being told that was a nominal burns of the New Yorker.

  • Burn is complete.

  • Dragon is on its way home.

  • And so the next thing that's gonna happen is that nose cone on Dragon is going to get closed.

  • We heard that process is now on work, and then it's time for Dragon of really get through the Earth's atmosphere and ultimately splashed down.

  • So that's where the vehicles going to heat up tremendously, because again, you have to keep in mind Dragon traveling at thousands of miles per hour right now.

  • And when it hits the thicker part of the earth's atmosphere, it's going to heat up tremendously from the friction.

  • And this is actually video of the nose cone starting to close on the dragon space and again that nose cone closes to protect that top portion of the vehicle from all of the re entry events.

  • Not only the re entry through the years atmosphere, but also once it's down in the water and that protects the guidance and navigation and control sensors on top of Dragon and also that docking ring that it uses to attach to the space station.

  • So again, what you're seeing right now is the nose cone closing on the Dragon spacecraft as we await for it to re enter the Earth's atmosphere.

  • All right, so that nose gun looks like it's just about closed.

  • We'll wait for final confirmation that everything looks good with it.

  • But then pretty soon we're gonna be looking towards the actual entry interface.

  • That's again, where Dragon starts heading enough atmosphere that it's going to start heating up because right now it's still high enough.

  • Even following that de orbit burn that it's still not feeling those effects of the atmosphere is gonna get Vickers.

  • It starts to descend, and that's gonna keep the vehicle up.

  • That's why you always have this heat shield on the bottom of these spacecrafts.

  • And that's why a lot of foreign news, this conical shape as a lot of engineers I've talked to you like to say physics haven't changed in the 19 sixties, when we made the spacecraft back then it was for that shit was that shape for a reason.

  • So that's why it's so common to see this capsule designed just because of how you re enter the earth's atmosphere.

  • It makes a lot of sense.

  • So we just heard confirmation that the nose cone hooks have begun the process of securing the nose cone into place prior to that re entry burn, right?

  • So there's actually an anticipated time where you lose signal with the spacecraft.

  • And that's just because, as you're re entering the Earth's atmosphere and you go through that intense heat, plasma actually build up on the outside of the spacecraft.

  • You can't send or receive signals from there, so it's very common when there's people on board, you'll lose the voice communication between them and the ground, and you'll lose all the telemetry of the data streams that you have coming from the spacecraft to rooms like the Mission Control Center, just behind us here on the door.

  • So that will be coming up.

  • We're expecting that to happen at about five times a 5:33 a.m. Pacific eso coming up in just about 20 minutes from now, Exactly.

  • And so after we are able to get through that phase of the mission.

  • Like we said before, following that will be the deployment of the parachutes and then splashdown.

  • So just a quick recap in case if you have just joined us.

  • Recently, we have departed from the International Space station.

  • Dragon completed a series of four departure burns in a slowly choreographed maneuver, and now we have already jettisoned the trunk of the the Dragon Spacecraft.

  • We have completed the the De orbit burn, and now we're just starting to come back down through the Earth's atmosphere and the final leg on Dragons way home, right so that nose cone's closed and we're just gonna be standing by toe.

  • Wait until we go through that entry interfacing, and that will be about 20 minutes from now on.

  • Then what sits down through there?

  • It's time for the parachutes.

  • We talked about parachutes for a little while ago, and we should hopefully get to see those parachutes, maybe from the plane.

  • But once it's down beneath the cloud deck, so we should be able to see him from the boats that will be standing by out there at the recoveries up, and it comes in two different stages.

  • Can you walk us through the parachutes, though?

  • With the parachutes, we will have the drogue parachutes, those of the smaller shoots that will come out that will slow the vehicle down.

  • Ah, little bit.

  • And then we will have the main parachutes, those air clearly visible by the orange and white coloring on them.

  • Very iconic.

  • If you've watched the previous Dragon splash downs for the cargo resupply missions, so we will have that.

  • And then that's what we'll slow the vehicle down enough to have a safe splash down in the water.

  • So at this point, another fun fact about dragon in the return to Earth.

  • The seats inside the capsule at this point have actuated or turned into the re entry position.

  • So depending on what phase of the mission we are in, the seats will actually, um, actuator or adjust the angle to make sure that the G forces that the astronauts will be experiencing are in the right places.

  • So with that being said, we will take a quick break active operations here, its face execution.

  • So with that being said, we will take a quick break.

  • Be sure to stay tuned with us as we go through.

  • This period of anticipated blackout with the dragon capsule will be back in just a few as we come back in anticipation of that parachute deployment stick around.

  • Yeah, And if you're just now joining us, way have had a successful de orbit burn, So that was the last major milestone.

  • We've also confirmed that the nose cone is closed, the hooks all engaged.

  • And so now we're just waiting for Dragon to be in making its way through the Earth's atmosphere.

  • That deorbit burn lasted a little over 15 minutes and was reported that it was done successfully.

  • No issues.

  • And Dragon is now on its way home.

  • We're continuing to get some pretty great views from the boats out there in the splashdown zone.

  • We're also gonna be on the lookout for some video, possibly from an aircraft that we have in the area.

  • One of NASA's W B 57 research planes is gonna be trying to get some views of dragon and chute deploy and actually coming down under the parachutes.

  • There are some clouds in the area, so the boats might not see it right away.

  • But once it's underneath those cloud decks, I don't have some pretty great views of it coming down.

  • So there on your screen again, you can see our primary recovery vessel.

  • That is what they're went.

  • But that is our recovery ship that is fully equipped with medical quarters for checkouts.

  • Once we do have crew onboard Dragon for our upcoming mission, they will be able to come out of the capsule and get a full medical check out immediately afterward.

  • There's also a hely pad there where a helicopter.

  • Glad it land in the event that we might need to get them back to court sooner than what the boat may be able to cope.

  • And there, on your screen, you can actually see I mentioned earlier.

  • The the lift that will bring Dragon out of the water has actuated into its recovery position so that you can see on the right hand side of your screen at the end of the boat.

  • And that is what will actually take dragon out of the water lifted up and then place it into its nest.

  • Which thief Isha ll term for it on the ship And then that would be considered, um, the end, at least when we get to that point, that would be the end of our Webcast today, but at this point, we're still waiting for the parachutes to deploy.

  • And then for the entire recovery operation, which, like I mentioned before, the recovery team has practiced this.

  • But obviously not with a vessel that has come down from the international space station yet.

  • So a lot of first that will be seeing today.

  • And we're really excited to be able to share that with you.

  • Yeah, and if you miss the very beginning, the fun historical said that we have way had for today was it's been almost 50 years to the day since we've landed a spacecraft designed for humans in the Atlantic Ocean.

  • That last one was Apollo nine, and I was back on March 13th 1969.

  • It was actually supposed to land in the Pacific, but ended up shooting for the Atlantic, and that was the last time they landed one in that area.

  • So it's gonna be exciting to see this water recovery.

  • All of our crew members for the last couple of years basically since we stopped flying.

  • The space shuttle have come down for land landing's over in Kazakhstan on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

  • But in the not too distant future will have crew members Doug, Doug Hurley and Bob Banking still waking up.

  • They'll be on the dragon offer the demo to Mission a little bit later this year.

  • So everything looking really good so far, we're gonna continue to stand by and wait for that entry interface.

  • We are just about 20 minutes away from when we're expecting to actually see Dragon under those parachute.

  • So not much longer.

  • Good things to come.

  • There's a lot of anticipation.

  • There's a crowd growing behind to be here at six headquarters.

  • Our mission Control Center is just down there, and you can probably hear the voices in the room around us, and the crowd is definitely starting to grow in anticipation of dragons.

  • Reappearance s.

  • So with that being said, we will take a quick break as we await for dragging to reenter and for those parachute deployments stick around.

  • We'll be back in just a few, and so we're getting a bit of a treat here.

  • You're getting a live view inside the dragon capsule is again.

  • It's getting closer and closer to that entry interface, coming through the Earth's atmosphere and then splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.

  • But first we have a very special guest, somebody who's gonna be on board a dragon in the not too distant future.

  • NASA astronaut Bob Banking Bob.

  • Thanks for being here.

  • Thanks for taking a couple of minutes.

  • I know you're following along with teams.

  • There's a lot of excitement.

  • How are you feeling about the mission so far?

  • Well, I think I said this before.

  • We're out here for the nascent phase and docking just super excited.

  • You know, of course, this one is the precursor for our mission That's upcoming here.

  • So when this one's done successfully, we'll be one step closer to our flight.

  • That's awesome.

  • So what is in store for you between now and that flight?

  • What kind of preparations do you have left to do?

  • That's a great question.

  • We have a significant amount of training that we need to go through, so we'll walk through all the various phases of flight so we'll do prelaunch.

  • We'll get suited.

  • We'll do that here and not born in the Bucks will do a walk through at the Kennedy Space Center, actually, on the launch pad, learn a little bit more about the emergency escape system.

  • If we should need that fire Thio, launch it into space.

  • And so we'll walk through all those different scenarios.

  • Then we'll head back out here again for a couple of other events, associate with docking and, of course, with the re entry said, So we're getting views inside the Dragon spacecraft, and I mean, the camera's okay, but it can't do the real thing.

  • Justice.

  • What's it like to be like in a spacecraft?

  • When you're coming back through and everything's heating up?

  • There's a couple of pieces of coming back through the atmosphere.

  • The 1st 1 is really emotional for those of us who have seen a lot of spacecraft come back.

  • It's just it's very special toe kind of go through that experience, and it's a it's a physical thing as well as you actually see the light from the atmosphere as it heats up the external portions of the spacecraft.

  • You see some orange lights flickering.

  • The plasma cannon go past the windows.

  • Windows will be down in a near our feet on this vehicle.

  • That will be our closest view out the window for say, but it's definitely something that will be able to see and know the outside of the vehicles going through something pretty severe.

  • And that will be hoping takes care of us as it picked us through injury.

  • That's incredible.

  • I can't even imagine what that experience again.

  • There's the physical piece of it sensations that come in with life.

  • But there's also the emotion of knowing that you're taking all that energy you put into the vehicle to get it into orbit.

  • It's all gonna come back out so that you could get back to the ground safely.

  • So it's been a while since you've been to space.

  • Is there anything you're really looking forward to get to the space station?

  • Anything like what?

  • What's your bucket list?

  • Once you get back up there for me when I get back to the International Space Station, I'm really am looking forward to seeing it completely complete.

  • I was pretty close with my flight.

  • We put the Coppola on the underside of the space station, one of the things close to the construction complete on the International space station's.

  • I'm looking forward to getting back in there and actually experiencing sunrises and sunsets again.

  • They're just remarkable from Manorville, not quite the same as they are from the ground that can't get that in place else.

  • Last question for you.

  • I'm sure you've been following along on social media.

  • You've seen the photos of our zero G indicator.

  • Now he's not coming back until you bring him back for us.

  • So you have a little bit of time to play with him while you're on station.

  • Is there anything that you would like to teach little earthy while you're up on station with him?

  • And that's a That's a good question.

  • I didn't actually realize that little Earth Day was going to stay on board this lovely rose in one of your here.

  • It's basics coming.

  • Let us No way sat down to watch on docking and he said, Hey, we're gonna need earthy back.

  • So I think our plan is to have him teach us.

  • He's gonna welcome us aboard, probably when we get there, and I think an and avid and Oleg have trained him up well, so hopefully he can walk us through the emergency brief.

  • He's a full fledged station.

  • Remember, By the time that we get there, we'll definitely looks like he's been getting a crash course in just about everything.

  • He should have it all, and he ought to be able to transfer it to us.

  • That's part of being a remember that arrives and takes over responsibilities on the international space station.

  • That's very cool.

  • Well, we certainly look forward to him.

  • Coming back as well is you and Doug in our demo to mission in a couple of months?

  • Very exciting.

  • Very much looking forward to it.

  • As you might imagine that.

  • Well, we're gonna get back to the reentry interface.

  • Bob, we're gonna let you go watch along because again vested interests much jumping upstairs for a quick and talk about Thank you.

  • Thank you very much.

  • Thank you.

  • So with that, we, uh, are awaiting the deployments or to meet the final phase of the re entry of Dragon spacecraft has its coming back through the earth's atmosphere.

  • I'm still kind of reeling from his comments about what it's like to actually come barreling through the earth's atmosphere, something that you see depicted in movies and TV shows, of course, but to hear it live from the source is pretty cool.

  • And that's exactly what Dragon and rippling are doing right now.

  • So we brought you a live view of that just a couple of minutes ago.

  • That was pretty cool, that we were able to get that shots.

  • Like we said, plasma will be building up on the exterior of the vehicle as its re entering the atmosphere.

  • So there's a blackout period that we're way were expecting on.

  • That's where we're at right now.

  • So but we can't bring you view of Ripley on her journey back to the Atlantic Ocean.

  • You can see a view of our recovery ship there.

  • Like I said before, we can now see that the lift arms have actually did out into the recovery position.

  • And they're like that in anticipation of Dragon being pulled in two.

  • Position closer to that the end of the ship and being lifted up into the into the recovery nest.

  • And you gotta imagine teams out there on the ocean are ready for this to come home against its there.

  • About 200 giver takes a nautical miles out to sea they actually left yesterday.

  • So they've been out on the water for sometimes they're ready and waiting again.

  • The prime team is on that ghost searcher, and that's a bunch of Space X technicians who are gonna be responsible for going out on some fast boats that will deploy from that prime ship.

  • And they begin just basically getting the capsule stable and then bring it in closer, ultimately get hoisted up on the ship.

  • Also going off to make sure that they get those parachutes is those get jettisoned from the capsule pretty much just at the moment of touchdown.

  • So we're just gonna be ready to watch all of that unfold Pretty soon, we should be seeing those parachutes in about 10 or 11 minutes from now, right after Dragon begins that final plunge through the Earth's atmosphere.

  • So we're getting a lot closer.

  • Things are really gonna pick up once we get those first, Use the dragon over the Atlantic There.

  • Absolutely.

  • So like Dan just said, we've got about 10 minutes until we see the first deployment, which are the deployments of the drogue parachutes s O.

  • But that being said, we're gonna take a quick break, and we'll be back in a few as we get closer to parachute deployment.

  • E.

  • So this is a view from that w B 57 airplane.

  • You were looking at Dragon streaking across the sky on its re entry through the Earth's atmosphere, aiming for a splash down in just a little while from now.

  • It's pretty exciting that we get the shot right now, as it is our first view from planet Earth of the Dragon capsule since it lifted off from Cape Canaveral just several days ago.

  • I will say this is this is a pretty rare treat to be able to see this here again.

  • This this video's coming from a NASA airplane that were flying around that recovery zone there W B 57 commonly used for a lot of atmospheric studies and other science missions, but able to put a tracking camera on it to try and get, uh, this re entry through the Earth's atmosphere.

  • Today we're hearing that they should have a Oso acquisition acquisition of signal back with the Dragon spacecraft.

  • Right now it's about 46 kilometers in altitude.

  • Yeah, so, just for orientation purposes, if you've seen our launches previously, you might be familiar with the angling of this as takeoff reminder.

  • This is reentry.

  • The plane is below the dragon spacecraft in the camera's looking upward as it's coming over the spacecraft.

  • So it looks like from the orientation of the imagery there, that dragon is going up when in fact it is.

  • It is still coming back down towards Earth and again just keeping you on the timelines that we actually acquired signal about a minute ahead of when it was expected, where we're gonna be looking for those initial drogue chute deployments at about 41 minutes after the hour.

  • So after Dragon gets a little bit lower down, we're going to be keeping an eye out.

  • You're going to see the drogue chutes deploy initially followed by those four main parachutes much larger and able to slow the vehicle down for a much softer splash down in the ocean.

  • We should be getting that drug short drogue chute deployment in just about two minutes Now.

  • I just heard that we're now below 30 kilometers and if you're just now tuning in, this is Dragon.

  • This is Dragon coming home from a camera on board a chase plane there at the landing zone over the Atlantic.

  • About 200 or so nautical miles off the coast of Florida were under 30 kilometers continuing to descend.

  • The next milestone we're gonna be looking for is parachute deployment.

  • Aaron, we're now about 20 kilometers and altitude.

  • Dragon spacecraft continuing to descend.

  • It's now subsonic, so already starting to slow down, thanks to the error breaking.

  • Basically slamming into that its atmosphere causes a lot of friction and allows the vehicle to eventually reach its terminal velocity basically on.

  • Then those parachutes are gonna kick in visual confirmation of the deployment of our drug parachute.

  • This is the first of two purchase appointments, So those shoots through the initial slowing, and then they're ultimately gonna pull out the four main parachutes responsible for really slowing the spacecraft down.

  • Prior to that, you're cheering here at space headquarters as the employees that have gathered around our Mission control center are sharing the same view as you would a course, a shot of dragon coming back down remains like to expand their capture, more air further decelerating.

  • The dragon vehicle down to the Atlantic Ocean really can't ask for a more picture Perfect shot in that.

  • And yes, all four shoots now deployed, it's gonna continue Descend, gonna continue to slow down and then ultimately splashed down in the Atlantic.

  • There we're now under a kilometer in altitude, just about 750 meters to go.

  • In case if you're just joining us, you can see on your screen there Dragon reentering there has just re entered the Earth's atmosphere after departing from International Space Station.

  • We have a gorgeous shot of four healthy parachutes deployed and slowing the vehicle down as it is approaching the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida and it's continuing to descend under those chutes.

  • We just passed 500 meters, everything continuing to look good view reports to all the flight control teams.

  • Now we're at about 400 meters, just passing 300 meters continuing to descend.

  • We might be right on time that we're planning on splashing down about 5:45 a.m. specific and we're getting real close to that.

  • Bingo time just passed 200 meters and we have confirmation that dragon is now under 100 meters eyes 100 meters above the surface of the ocean.

  • Next up.

  • Spin standing by for splashdown way.

  • Have confirmation of flash down.

  • Dragon has returned to planet Earth that is now back home and you can see on your screen are too fast.

  • Boats racing out to the capsule now in recovery.

  • That's last town came right on Time.

  • 5:45 a.m. Pacific 8:45 a.m. Over on the East Coast, teams that have been ready and waiting they were stage just a few nautical miles away.

  • They're going to start moving now.

  • You see those two fast already speeding their way towards the capsule.

  • While there's still a little bit more work to be done at this point.

  • Like you said, the recovery team has to safety vehicle and then lifted onto the recovery vessel.

  • However, obviously by the excited cheers here at Mission Control, the splashdown is an enormous event for us in terms of the safe re entry safe return to Earth from the International Space Station, you'll notice two boats on their way, one boat actually responsible for beginning to save the vehicle and get it ready to go up onto the boat.

  • The other one's gonna go off and collect those parachutes is those four main chutes actually get jettisoned away from the spacecraft as soon as the vehicle detects that it splashed out in the water.

  • But if you missed it, I'm really sorry, because that was really a dragon.

  • Did splash down at 5:45 a.m. Pacific time 8:45 a.m. Over there on the east Coast, where they're now moving in on Dragon Spacecraft in the water, ready to recover.

  • Exactly.

  • So like we said, the recovery team has been ready and waiting for drag inspirations for to me for a dragon splash down.

  • It's been quite the morning Evening.

  • Dan and I have been here since yesterday night, bringing you coverage from Dragon departure from International Space Space Station now all the way down to splash down.

  • So it's a great next milestone, and we are excited to bring you coverage of the recovery operations as well.

  • But we have a few minutes before that happens, so we're gonna take a break momentarily and we will continue bringing coverage as recovery operation's progress.

  • So we're gonna take a quick break from the operations because right now we have Benji read.

  • He's the director of the commercial crew Mission Management here at Space X.

  • Benji.

  • First off, Congratulations.

  • Successful flash down Successful ended their demo.

  • One.

  • What's it been like watching this mission?

  • What are your thoughts?

  • What are you looking forward to?

  • Have you had a chance to catch your breath?

  • No, but super excited.

  • I thank you for having me up here.

  • To be honest, I came shaking and I'm super excited.

  • It was an incredible journey to get to this moment.

  • The teams have just done an amazing job with space sex and the NASA teams jointly.

  • It's fundamentally This is like a great day for the nation, for space X, for NASA, for all of us.

  • Really, for the world I think it was.

  • And who said this is the first time in 40 years that we have a spacecraft designed for humans to fly?

  • And not only did she fly go to space station she was supposed to do, but

all stations on Dragon.

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