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Astronauts returning home from space station splash down off Florida coast
Source: CNN
Four astronauts boarded a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and returned home from the International Space Station on Friday, bringing an end to their nearly six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The astronauts NASAs Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins as well as Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the European Space Agency or ESA shared goodbye hugs with other astronauts on the space station and strapped into their spacecraft around 10 a.m. ET.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft left its docking port at the ISS around noon ET and made a gradual trek home toward the edge of Earths thick inner atmosphere. Then, the capsule lit up its thrusters again to orient itself as it began its reentry. This step began to slow the spacecraft from its orbital speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 kilometers per hour). A heat shield kept the astronauts protected as the fiery swoop back toward Earth heated the spacecrafts exterior to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius).
A plume of parachutes then slowed its descent further before it came to a splashdown landing off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, just before 5 p.m. ET. Rescue ships waited nearby and hauled the spacecraft out of the water, allowing the astronauts to exit the capsule and take their first breaths of fresh air in about 170 days.
The astronauts NASAs Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins as well as Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the European Space Agency or ESA shared goodbye hugs with other astronauts on the space station and strapped into their spacecraft around 10 a.m. ET.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft left its docking port at the ISS around noon ET and made a gradual trek home toward the edge of Earths thick inner atmosphere. Then, the capsule lit up its thrusters again to orient itself as it began its reentry. This step began to slow the spacecraft from its orbital speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 kilometers per hour). A heat shield kept the astronauts protected as the fiery swoop back toward Earth heated the spacecrafts exterior to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius).
A plume of parachutes then slowed its descent further before it came to a splashdown landing off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, just before 5 p.m. ET. Rescue ships waited nearby and hauled the spacecraft out of the water, allowing the astronauts to exit the capsule and take their first breaths of fresh air in about 170 days.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/14/business/spacex-nasa-crew-4-undock-friday-scn/index.html
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Astronauts returning home from space station splash down off Florida coast (Original Post)
brooklynite
Oct 2022
OP
keithbvadu2
(36,814 posts)1. American Challenger type space shuttles, Russian space shuttles, and now the Uber version - SpaceX.
American Challenger type space shuttles, Russian space shuttles, and now the Uber version - SpaceX.
James48
(4,436 posts)2. Congrats on a successful mission!
twodogsbarking
(9,754 posts)3. Welcome back. You didn't miss anything.