Watch live: SpaceX Crew-1 post-splashdown news conference, ,
SpaceX’s first operational astronaut mission for NASA, Crew-1, returned to Earth early Sunday (May 2). A post-splashdown news conference with NASA and SpaceX officials will follow at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), and you can watch it live here, courtesy of NASA TV.
After six months in space, the Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft Resilience undocked from the International Space Station on Saturday (May 1) at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 GMT) and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Panama City, Florida, on Sunday at 2:56 a.m. EDT (0656 GMT). NASA will provide continuous coverage of the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s return to Earth on NASA TV.
Crew-1’s return to Earth wrapped up the Expedition 64 mission to the space station. Returning home on Resilience were NASA astronauts Victor Glover, pilot; Mike Hopkins, commander; Shannon Walker, mission specialist and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, mission specialist. The astronauts launched to the station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in November.
Live updates: SpaceX’s Crew-1 astronaut mission to the space station
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SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” is pictured on the GO Navigator recovery vessel after splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico, on May 2, 2021. (Image credit: SpaceX)Editor’s Note: This advisory was updated April 30, 2021, with new information and target dates for the return of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission.
Editor’s Note: This advisory updates the original advisory issued April 24, 2021 .
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is now targeting a return to Earth no earlier than about 2:57 a.m. EDT Sunday, May 2, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. The Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 8:35 p.m. Saturday, May 1, to begin the journey home.
NASA and SpaceX decided to move Crew-1’s undocking and splashdown from Friday, April 30, and Saturday, May 1, respectively, following a review of the forecast weather conditions in the splashdown zones off the coast of Florida, which predicted wind speeds above the return criteria. Crew Dragon is in great health on the space station, and teams now forecast ideal conditions for both splashdown and recovery during the weekend.
The return to Earth – and activities leading up to the return – will air live on NASA Television, the NASA App, and the agency’s website.
This will be the first night splashdown of a U.S. crewed spacecraft since Apollo 8’s predawn return in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 27, 1968, with NASA astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders.
Crew-1 is the first of six crewed missions NASA and SpaceX will fly as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, which worked with the U.S. aerospace industry to return launches with astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil.
The Crew Dragon will undock autonomously and depart from the space station with the capability to splashdown at one of seven targeted landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. Resilience also will return to Earth important and time-sensitive research. The NASA and SpaceX teams select a primary and alternate splashdown location from the seven possible landing locations about two days prior to return, factoring in weather, crew rescue, and recovery operations. Additional decision milestones take place prior to undocking, during free flight, and before Crew Dragon performs the deorbit burn.
NASA and SpaceX closely coordinate with the U.S. Coast Guard to establish a 10-nautical-mile safety zone around the expected splashdown location to ensure safety for the public and for those involved in the recovery operations, as well as the crew aboard the returning spacecraft.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 return coverage is as follows (all times are Eastern):
Saturday, May 1
6 p.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for 6:20 p.m. hatch closure
8:15 p.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for 8:35 p.m. undocking
Sunday, May 2
2:57 a.m. (approx.) – Splashdown (NASA TV will provide continuous coverage from undocking to splashdown)
5 a.m. – Return to Earth news conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, with the following participants:
Media wishing to participate in the Return to Earth news conference by telephone must call Johnson’s newsroom at 281-483-5111 to RSVP no later than 4 a.m. Sunday, May 2. Those following the briefing on social media may ask questions using #AskNASA.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has delivered on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is changing the arc of human spaceflight history by opening access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, more science, and more commercial opportunities. The space station remains the springboard to NASA’s next great leap in space exploration, including future missions to the Moon and, eventually, to Mars.
Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station, and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts and the space station blog.
Learn more about splashdown locations, weather criteria, and recovery logistics, at:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-spacex-crew-rescue-and-recovery/
See full mission coverage, NASA’s commercial crew blog, and more information about the mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Find out what the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are up to by tuning in to the “ISS Live” broadcast. Hear conversations between the crew and mission controllers on Earth and watch them work inside the U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory. When the crew is off duty, you can enjoy live views of Earth from Space. You can watch and listen in the window below, courtesy of NASA.
“Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During ‘loss of signal’ periods, viewers will see a blue screen.
“Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below.”
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