SpaceX is managing the return to Earth of four astronauts belonging to the Crew-4 mission this weekend. The event can be followed live.
The Crew-4 mission in summary
- What ? The return of four astronauts, three Americans and an Italian, by a SpaceX capsule;
- When ? October 13, 2022 at 11:41 p.m. for landing, Paris time;
- Where ? In the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida, and on the Nasa Range;
- What will we see? The return to Earth of four astronauts who will have spent six months in the ISS. SpaceX takes care of bringing them back, after having provided the outward journey.
What is the Crew-4 mission?
The mission is to bring four astronauts back to Earth after a stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The travelers — Kjell N. Lindgren, Robert Hines, Samantha Cristoforetti and Jessica Watkins — spent six months in orbit around the Earth, at an altitude of nearly 400 kilometers. This is the standard duration for this type of mission.
It is the American company SpaceX which supervises this flight and mobilizes for it a capsule Crew Dragon, which is cut for the transport of crew. The company now has recognized experience: it has already made several returns of this type for NASA, but also in the context of private missions – space tourism, in orbit or in the ISS.
The personnel traveling to Earth includes three Americans (two men and one woman) and one European (in this case, an Italian). In the ISS the following people remain: Francisco Rubio (American), Sergei Prokopiev, Dimitri Peteline (Russian), Nicole Mann, (American) Josh Cassada (American) Koichi Wakata (Japanese) and Anna Kikina (Russian).
During their stay, the four astronauts conducted routine activities, including spacewalks to maintain the space station and scientific experiments. The Crew-4 mission, however, allowed some “firsts”: the first black woman to board the ISS; the first European woman to command the ISS; and the first to make a spacewalk.
On board the capsule, the crew will not have much to do, since the machine is largely automated. It undocks autonomously from the ISS, moves away from the station on its own and follows its atmospheric re-entry trajectory without the need for any particular assistance. Obviously, everything is monitored from the ground by SpaceX and the astronauts can act if necessary.
Astronaut return date
Return to Earth by Kjell N. Lindgren, Robert Hines, Samantha Cristoforetti and Jessica Watkins is scheduled for October 13, at 5:41 p.m. local time. In metropolitan France, it will be 11:41 p.m. at the time of the landing. As for the stalling of the International Space Station, it takes place on the night of October 12 to 13, at 01:05 am (Paris time).
How to follow the water landing live
It will be possible to witness the return of the four astronauts live thanks to NASA’s YouTube channel. Just directly launch the video embedded below.