The four astronauts of Crew-1 are scheduled to undock from the International Space Station and splashdown to Earth early Sunday morning aboard SpaceX Dragon Resilience. Delayed twice due to the weather, astronauts Michael Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Soichi Noguchi are scheduled to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at 1:57 a.m. CDT Sunday, May 2nd.
Both NASA and SpaceX will be broadcasting crew return events on their respective media platforms. NASA’s programming begins at 5 p.m. CDT and will include boarding activities, undocking, and continue through until splashdown. This programming is available via the NASA App or on the agency’s website, NASALive. SpaceX is also live broadcasting coverage of the crew’s return on their website and via their YouTube channel.
NASA is working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard to secure the splashdown landing site, issuing a ten nautical mile safety zone, to prevent boaters from getting too close to the capsule and recovery teams. Because this is an early morning return, darkness is another factor that recovery crews need to consider in addition to wind and conditions on the water such as wave height.
After a six month stay in orbit, Crew-1 astronauts will be making the first nighttime splashdown in over 50 years and the second crew to splashdown in a Dragon capsule. Following their November launch the crew performed science and research aboard Station, some of which will return with them, and were part of one of the largest corps of astronauts ever hosted on the International Space Station.
To return home, the crew will orbit Earth at over seventeen thousand miles per hour, beginning their deorbit burn at 1:03 a.m. Chicago time, until drogue chutes and the capsule’s main chute deploy and slow Resilience down to just fifteen miles per hour for splashdown.
