Dragon Returning to Earth

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Dragon Prepares to Leave, New Trio Prepares to Launch

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The SpaceX Dragon's release from Canadarm2 occurred at 6:56 a.m. EDT. Now the Expedition 35 crew will command the spacecraft to slowly depart from the International Space Station. Ground controllers earlier sent commands to the Canadarm2 to unberth Dragon from the Harmony node at 4:10 a.m. EDT.

Dragon will fire its engines for the last time at 11:42 a.m. sending it through the Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean around 12:34 p.m. A team of SpaceX engineers, technicians and divers will recover the vehicle off the coast of Baja, California, for the journey back to shore which will take about 30 hours.

› Read about Dragon’s March 1 launch

› Read about Dragon’s March 3 capture

Dragon's return date, originally scheduled for March 25, was postponed due to inclement weather developing near its targeted splashdown site in the Pacific Ocean. The additional day spent attached to the orbiting laboratory will not affect science samples scheduled to return aboard the spacecraft. NASA Television will provide coverage of Dragon's departure beginning at 4 a.m. EDT.

The Dragon spacecraft launched atop the Falcon 9 rocket on the SpaceX-2 commercial resupply mission March 1 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Two days later Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn captured the Dragon just 32 feet away from the station with the Canadarm2. Ground controllers then took over Canadarm2 operations and berthed Dragon to the Harmony node.

Hatches to the commercial cargo craft were opened about four hours later beginning three weeks of cargo transfer activities. Station crew members swapped 1,200 pounds of cargo delivered to the station with 2,600 pounds of gear to be returned to Earth.

› Read about the research gear delivered aboard Dragon

Experiment gear and space hardware were delivered for NASA and its Russian, Canadian, European and Japanese space station partners. Over twice as much gear was returned including trash, station hardware and biological samples collected and stored in freezers during the course of research for analysis on the ground.

Dragon’s rendezvous with the station was delayed by a day after three of four thrusters did not fire as commanded. SpaceX engineers resolved the problem and continued Dragon’s mission to the station after consultation with NASA managers.

A third SpaceX commercial resupply services mission is targeted for launch at the end of September.

Dragon originally performed two demonstration flights, the first in December 2010 for just two orbits and the second in May 2012. The second Dragon demonstration mission actually arrived at the space station, delivered non-essential cargo and stayed for six days after three days of approach and rendezvous tests. Its first official resupply mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract was in October 2012 during Expedition 33 and lasted three weeks.

› Read more about Expedition 35

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SpaceX/Dragon Makes Return to Earth

After three weeks attached to the International Space Station, the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship was unberthed and released by Expedition 35 Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn March 25 using the Canadarm 2 robotic arm from a workstation in the station's Cupola. After moving a safe distance away from the station, Dragon performed a deorbit burn to reenter the Earth's atmosphere for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California. Dragon was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket March 1 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., arriving at the station on March 3 with supplies and vital science experiments. Dragon returned to Earth laden with a cache of scientific samples for analyses by researchers.

Source: NASAtelevision - YouTube Channel

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Dragon Splashes Down in Pacific Ocean

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The SpaceX Dragon fired its engines for the last time Tuesday at 11:42 a.m. EDT sending it through the Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 12:34 p.m. A team of SpaceX engineers, technicians and divers will recover the vehicle off the coast of Baja, California, for the journey back to shore which will take about 30 hours.

Dragon's release from Canadarm2 occurred at 6:56 a.m. The Expedition 35 crew commanded the spacecraft to slowly depart from the International Space Station. Ground controllers earlier sent commands to the Canadarm2 to unberth Dragon from the Harmony node at 4:10 a.m.

› Listen to Tom Marshburn's comments after Dragon's departure

› Read about Dragon’s March 1 launch

› Read about Dragon’s March 3 capture

Dragon's return date, originally scheduled for March 25, was postponed due to inclement weather developing near its targeted splashdown site in the Pacific Ocean. The additional day spent attached to the orbiting laboratory will not affect science samples scheduled to return aboard the spacecraft. NASA Television will provide coverage of Dragon's departure beginning at 4 a.m. EDT.

The Dragon spacecraft launched atop the Falcon 9 rocket on the SpaceX-2 commercial resupply mission March 1 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Two days later Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn captured the Dragon just 32 feet away from the station with the Canadarm2. Ground controllers then took over Canadarm2 operations and berthed Dragon to the Harmony node.

Hatches to the commercial cargo craft were opened about four hours later beginning three weeks of cargo transfer activities. Station crew members swapped 1,200 pounds of cargo delivered to the station with 2,600 pounds of gear to be returned to Earth.

› Read about the research gear delivered aboard Dragon

Experiment gear and space hardware were delivered for NASA and its Russian, Canadian, European and Japanese space station partners. Over twice as much gear was returned including trash, station hardware and biological samples collected and stored in freezers during the course of research for analysis on the ground.

Dragon’s rendezvous with the station was delayed by a day after three of four thrusters did not fire as commanded. SpaceX engineers resolved the problem and continued Dragon’s mission to the station after consultation with NASA managers.

A third SpaceX commercial resupply services mission is targeted for launch at the end of September.

Dragon originally performed two demonstration flights, the first in December 2010 for just two orbits and the second in May 2012. The second Dragon demonstration mission actually arrived at the space station, delivered non-essential cargo and stayed for six days after three days of approach and rendezvous tests. Its first official resupply mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract was in October 2012 during Expedition 33 and lasted three weeks.

› Read more about Expedition 35

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Edited March 26, 2013 by Waspie_Dwarf
updated image.

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Dragon Returns Home, Soyuz Rolled to Launch Pad in Kazakhstan

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The Expedition 35 crew members living and working aboard the International Space Station were busy with SpaceX Dragon undocking operations Tuesday, and also performed science experiments and post-undocking clean up duties.

After spending 23 days attached to the station and delivering about 1,268 pounds of supplies to support continuing space station research experiments, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft completed its stay at the station and has returned to Earth.

Dragon was unberthed from the Harmony node using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm and released to begin its journey back home at 6:56 a.m. EDT. Dragon then fired its engines for the last time to send it through the Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. A team of SpaceX engineers, technicians and divers worked on spacecraft recovery operations off the coast of Baja, Calif., for Dragon’s journey back to shore.

› Listen to Tom Marshburn's comments after Dragon's departure

› Read more about Dragon's departure and landing

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Aboard the station, Commander Chris Hadfield and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn wrapped up their work to prepare for the spacecraft’s unberthing, and were at the controls of Canadarm2 during Dragon’s departure operations.

After its departure, Hadfield and Marshburn focused on stowing all the equipment and tools used during the departure operations, reconfiguring the station’s systems as required.

Later, Marshburn participated in the Energy experiment, which observes the negative energy balance crew members experience in space and explores exercise as a countermeasure.

› Read more about Energy

Hadfield had some time set aside to participate in an in-flight interview with Société Radio-Canada in Montreal, answering questions about life aboard the station and some of the research he is conducting.

Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko worked in the in the Russian segment of the orbiting laboratory, monitoring its systems and performing maintenance tasks.

Meanwhile at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft that will carry Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Pavel Vinogradov, Chris Cassidy and Alexander Misurkin to the station was rolled out to the launch pad by train on Tuesday. The trio is set to launch at 4:43 p.m. EDT Thursday for a docking to the Poisk module about six hours later.

› Watch the Soyuz roll out video

› Read more about Expedition 35

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SpaceX Dragon, NASA Science Cargo Back On Dry Land

The SpaceX Dragon capsule has returned to California, after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean March 26 a few hundred miles west of Baja California following its International Space Station resupply mission. Currently the only spacecraft able to return a significant amount of cargo to Earth, the Dragon capsule will now be trucked overland to SpaceX's test facility in Texas for post-flight processing.

Credit: NASA

Source: NASA - Multimedia