WASHINGTON — A Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down of the coast of Florida early Sept. 4, bringing back a crew from america, United Arab Emirates and Russia who spent six months on the International Space Station.
The Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour splashed down within the Atlantic Ocean off the coast from Jacksonville, Florida, at 12:17 a.m. Eastern, completing the Crew-6 mission. The spacecraft had undocked from the ISS at 7:05 a.m. Eastern Sept. 3.
Onboard the spacecraft were NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, who served as commander and pilot, respectively, of Crew-6. Also on board were mission specialists Sultan Alneyadi of the UAE and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos.
The 4 spent 186 days in space, starting with their launch March 2 on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Their return was delayed two days to attend for favorable weather conditions within the splashdown zones, which had been affected by Hurricane Idalia.
The reentry and splashdown went in line with plan, NASA and SpaceX officials said during a briefing after splashdown. On the Crew-5 return in March, certainly one of two drogue parachutes was slower to inflate than the opposite, a subject that was reviewed and cleared ahead of the Crew-7 launch Aug. 26.
“The chutes looked nominal, really great,” Benji Reed, senior director of human spaceflight programs at SpaceX, said on the briefing after splashdown. “We’re not tracking any anomalies or anything that appears out of character.”
Endeavour, which accomplished its fourth flight with Crew-6, will likely be refurbished to be used on Crew-8, scheduled for February 2024. The five-month turnaround is typical for Crew Dragon spacecraft, said Steve Stich, NASA business crew program manager. One area of focus will likely be propellant valves, he said, in search of any corrosion that was seen on a cargo Dragon mission launched in June.
NASA has certified Crew Dragon for five flights, but SpaceX expects to have the ability to reuse each spacecraft as much as 15 times. “All of the info thus far continues to point that’s possible,” Reed said, although it’s going to require “a specific amount of additional refurbishment” for the vehicles.
Endeavour is certainly one of 4 Crew Dragon spacecraft in operation. SpaceX is constructing a fifth vehicle that is anticipated to make its first flight within the near future. “That latest capsule is coming along well,” Reed said. Its first mission “will likely be in the subsequent couple of flights or so” but doesn’t have a particular mission assigned to it yet.