SpaceX Dragon Endeavour expected to splashdown near Pensacola tonight
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NASA and SpaceX are pushing forward with the return of the crew from the International Space Station tonight.
SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide, and Thomas Pesquet boarded their Crew Dragon capsule in orbit at 1:05 CT this afternoon and are expected to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola at 9:33 p.m. CT.
Their mission launched in April and was scheduled to last six months, but the team is now working overtime. Pensacola was one of seven potential splashdown sites, and was chosen late today due to the best weather conditions.
Pensacola was the splashdown location for the August 2020 SpaceX Dragon flight, which was the return of the first U.S. astronauts to launch from American soil since 2011.
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The next group of astronauts, Crew-3, are still in quarantine at Kennedy Space Center and prepping for their launch, which has been delayed several times due to weather concerns and a minor medical issue with one of the crew. Their mission was originally scheduled to launch before Crew-2's departure, so an in-person handoff between the two crews is no longer possible.
If everything goes according to plan with Crew-2's return, Crew-3 will be cleared to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket from KSC's pad 39A no earlier than 9:03 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10. An on-time launch would see that Crew Dragon dock with the ISS at 7:10 p.m. Thursday.
Crew-3 includes NASA's Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer. Just like Crew-2, their mission packed with science experiments and spacewalks is scheduled to last about six months.
Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support space journalism by subscribing at floridatoday.com/specialoffer/.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: SpaceX Dragon Endeavour expected to splashdown near Pensacola tonight
