This was the final splashdown of a SpaceX crew dragon off the coast of Florida. Future ones will be conducted off the coast of southern California.
NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams got their first taste of fresh air in 286 days when the hatch of their SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule Freedom was opened by recovery crews off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 6:38 p.m. on March 18.
They returned home 278 days later than expected, after their test flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) became a one-way trip after the capsule was deemed unsafe to return in.
All four crew members were pulled from the Dragon onto the deck of the SpaceX recovery ship Megan, smiling and waving, with Wilmore and Williams coming out just after 6:50 p.m. They were immediately taken on a stretcher to the SpaceX flight surgeon, which is standard return procedure for all long-duration Dragon and Soyuz missions.
Less than an hour earlier, Dragon Freedom safely splashed down into the calm blue waters of the Gulf of America, carrying not just Wilmore and Williams but their fellow members of SpaceX Crew-9: NASA Astronaut Nick Hauge, Crew-9 commander, and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
That splashdown, occurring at approximately 5:57 p.m., marked the end of a journey home which began with a departure from the ISS just after 1 a.m.
Final descent began around 5:11 p.m. as their capsule turned itself around and fired its engine for a re-entry burn, slowing itself to a point where it was pulled out of orbit and began re-entering the atmosphere.
Dragon is designed to perform an autonomous re-entry.
Commander Hague’s voice broke routine radio silence, letting SpaceX mission control know he and his crew were “enjoying the ride,” as video from a high-altitude aircraft showed the first images of Freedom coming back to the earth as a plasma trail streaked behind.
At 5:54 p.m., Cheers erupted as drogue parachutes deployed, followed shortly by the main parachutes, slowing the spacecraft from more than 370 mph down to 16 mph.
“What a ride,” Hague said. “The capsule’s full of grins, ear to ear.”
Once checked out by the flight surgeon, the crew will take a helicopter from the ship to an airport where they will catch a flight back to Houston, Texas, and the Johnson Space Center.
Hague and Gorbunov launched to the ISS aboard Dragon Freedom as the original members of Crew-9, bringing with them the seats and spacesuits that Wilmore and Williams needed to get home. Hague and Gorbunov had their own mission objectives to accomplish on the station.
They returned home with Wilmore and Williams after 171 days in space.
By T.J. Muscaro
