Demo-2
DM-2 Mission Patch
The demonstration flight for human-rated commercial-crew spacecraft is due to conclude this weekend (subject to the weather forecast for the potential splashdown sites).
The exact time between undocking and splashdown will vary, and will be somewhere between six hours and thirty hours depending upon various factors such as the choice of landing site.
As I write, NASA are targeting a 7:34pm EDT undocking (34 mins past midnight on 2nd Aug for the UK), and are looking to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola at 2:41pm EDT on the 2nd (that’s 7:41pm BST).
The most interesting parts (assuming all goes to plan) will be the departure and the re-entry. After undocking, there will be several orbits, and then the rockets are fired to slow the craft and initiate re-entry. As it moves through the atmosphere, the rapid compression of the air ahead of the craft will cause a temperature rise leading to a plasma being formed, enforcing a radio blackout of around six minutes.
Nearer to the surface, the parachutes open and the capsule splashes down. The recovery will be as speedy as possible.
Dragon will be recovered and examined. If certified, the first operational commercial crew flight will be scheduled for later in the year. This will be the imaginatively titled Crew 1 mission.
Links
Mission Patch (public domain)
Image of DM-2 docking with the ISS (public domain)
NASA update with the decision about Pensacola
More Space
Recent Space Posts
