Page 3 - Spec Tech Vol 1 Issue 06
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SpaceX's Crew-4 splashes down after 5
months on International Space Station
Image Credit: NASA
Crew-4's Dragon capsule, named Freedom, rived at the orbiting lab that same day. The
splashed down around 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 astronauts conducted more than 200 scientific
GMT) near Jacksonville, Florida following experiments during their time off Earth, NASA
an International Space Station (ISS) mission, officials have said.
reaching the Atlantic Ocean safely on Friday
(Oct. 14). Cristoforetti made history during the mission,
becoming the first European woman ever to
The successful return followed two command the ISS. She handed the reins of the
weather-related undocking station over to Russian cosmonaut Sergey
delays on Wednesday (Oct. 12) and Prokopyev during a change-of-command
Thursday (Oct. 13). Undocking was also ceremony on Tuesday (Oct. 11).
delayed by 30 minutes on Friday to 12:05
p.m. EDT (1605 GMT) verify alignment of the Though Crew-4 is gone, the orbiting lab still
hatches between the two spacecraft. hosts a SpaceX mission: the four-person Crew-5
arrived on Oct. 6 for a roughly five-month stay.
"We wish you godspeed and safe re-entry," a
member of Expedition 68 told the departing Like SpaceX, Boeing holds a contract with
crew in the moments after undocking. NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Boeing is
gearing up for its first astronaut mission to the
Aside from the tricky weather in past days at ISS, a crewed test flight that could launch as
the landing site, the Crew Dragon spacecraft early as February 2023.
clicked through all landing milestones
flawlessly and brought its four astronauts Fun Facts about Crew Dragon Capsule
safely back to Earth: NASA's Kjell Lindgren,
Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins and the Þ In December 2010, Dragon became the first
European Space Agency's Samantha privately developed spacecraft to return safely
Cristoforetti. from orbit - a feat previously achieved by just
three nations (the United States, Russia, and
As its name suggests, Crew-4 is the fourth China).
contracted astronaut mission
that SpaceX has flown to the ISS for NASA. Þ Dragon has the most powerful heat shield in the
world; designed in cooperation with NASA, it is
The quartet of astronauts launched atop a made of a material called PICA-X, a high-
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 27 and ar- performance variant on NASA's original Phenolic
Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA).
Space Explorer 2022 3
