04/27/2021

NASA will provide live coverage of the upcoming return activities for the agency's SpaceX Crew-1 mission with astronauts Michael Hopkins, KF5LJG; Victor Glover, KI5BKC; Shannon Walker, KD5DXB, and Soichi Noguchi, KD5TVP, from the International Space Station.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, is scheduled to undock from the space station to begin its journey back to Earth at 1105 UTC on Wednesday, April 28. NASA and SpaceX are targeting 1640 UTC for splashdown[1]. The return to Earth will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency's website.

Crew-1 is the first of six crewed missions NASA and SpaceX will fly as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which worked with the US aerospace industry to return rockets, spacecraft, and launches with astronauts to the US.

In advance of departure from the space station, Crew-1 astronaut and station Commander Walker will hand over command of the station to astronaut and Crew-2 member Hoshide during a change-of-command and farewell event.

The Crew Dragon will autonomously undock, depart the space station, and splashdown at one of seven targeted landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. Resilience will also return to Earth, important and time-sensitive research. For normal crew rescue and recovery operations, the NASA and SpaceX teams select two primary splashdown locations from the seven possible locations about 2 weeks prior to return, with additional decision milestones taking place prior to crew boarding the spacecraft, during free flight, and before Crew Dragon performs a deorbit burn.

NASA and SpaceX closely coordinate with the US Coast Guard to establish a 10-nautical-mile safety zone around the expected splashdown location to ensure safety for the crew aboard the spacecraft, those involved in the recovery operations and the public.

See live coverage[2], NASA's commercial crew blog, and more information on the NASA website.


[1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-spacex-crew-rescue-and-recovery/
[2] https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/

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