Megan has now arrived at the Crew-7 splashdown site near Pensacola. Splashdown is set for 5:50am ET on Tuesday morning
For these operations, the United States Coast Guard, in coordination with SpaceX and NASA, establishes a safety zone to ensure public safety and for the safety of those involved in the recovery operations, as well as the crew onboard the returning spacecraft. Multiple notices are issued to the Mariners in advance and during recovery operations, and Coast Guard patrol assets may be deployed to discourage boaters from entering the splashdown zones. We want to stress to the public the need to respect this safety zone. Recovering a spacecraft from the water is a hazardous operation and any other boats interfering increases risk to the astronauts in the capsule, the teams working to recover them from the water, and the safety of those that come too close. For the safety of the crew, and your safety, we recommend you sit back and watch on NASA TV and the SpaceX webcast as we'll be bringing you the best possible views of our astronauts homecoming.2:52 PM · Mar 11, 2024
Crew is awake and I think I heard Jaws say they were starting fluid loading.Rob Navias on audio duty
Crew 7: Good morning; Crew 7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA flier Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are now 1 hour from the deorbit burn designed to put the ship on a trajectory toward splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
Crew 7: The burn is expected to begin around 4:56am EDT (0856 UTC), slowing the ship by about 212 mph, just enough to drop the far side of the orbit into the discernible atmosphere for a NW-to-SE descent across the heartland of America
Crew 7: With good weather in the Gulf, splashdown is expected at 5:47am (0947 UTC), closing out a 199-day 2-hour mission spanning 3,184 orbits and 84.4 million miles
Crew is awake and I think I heard Jaws say they were starting fluid loading.
Watch Dragon and Crew-7 return to Earth
After Dragon reenters Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft will fly over the United States ahead of splashing down near Pensacola, FL at ~5:47 a.m. ET
Crew 7: The deorbit burn is underway; this is a planned 13.5-minute burn by the Crew Dragon's forward Draco thrusters that will change the spacecraft's velocity by about 95 meters per second, or ~212 mph
Crew 7: The deorbit burn is complete; SpaceX reports good performance; the Crew Dragon nose cone is closing for re-entry
Dragon’s deorbit burn is complete and its nosecone is closed. Splashdown in ~34 minutes
