NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have returned to Earth after being stuck in space for more than nine months. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico early Tuesday evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station.
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00:00So we should see it any second now and there you are getting a great view of crew nine inside dragon freedom as it returns back to Earth. We are awaiting the drogue deploys this view coming from the WB 57 high altitude plane and there you see it on your screen drogue deployment.
00:15You can hear the crowd here.
00:28The crowd here very excited as dragon freedom continues to make its way back to planet Earth.
00:43We will stand by for the main deployment of the parachutes.
00:47The mains are quite a bit larger you'll be able to notice the difference on your screen once they deploy and they continue to ensure that the dragon spacecraft slows down even further.
00:57As we mentioned freedom will be traveling 16 miles per hour when it splashes down off the coast of Tallahassee Florida here at 2 57pm pacific time this afternoon and there we go.
01:09We have visual on four healthy mains.
01:14That view was from inside one of the buckets where the parachutes are located so we see a great view there of the reefing on those parachutes and as those main parachutes begin to inflate fully four beautiful healthy mains.
01:38Now awaiting visuals of splashed out.
01:43Start to hear commander Nick Hague copy 1000.
01:48As we heard right there commander Nick Hague will be calling out the altitude of the dragon capsule from here on out landing in water is simpler and provides more margin against unlikely parachute issues.
02:01You can see those, those parachutes continuing to slow the dragon capsule down.
02:09And if you're just joining us, you're looking at 800 meters, a live view of crew nine just minutes away from splashing down off the coast of Tallahassee Florida splashdown two minutes from now at 2 57pm pacific we do have four healthy mains really doing the job they're just breathtaking views of a calm,
02:31grass like ocean off the coast of Tallahassee Florida crew nine just minutes away from splashing down this is really such an incredible shot that was 600 that was a live view from our recovery vessel Megan which is stationed a couple miles away from the splashdown site we can see the crew they're using their their restraints as resting places for their arms.
03:01They were just in space moments ago.
03:04So their arms are able to float freely 400 meters.
03:13This is a gorgeous bluebird day here that we have for the splashdown of crew nine.
03:20It's incredible to think that the dragon capsule just minutes ago was going over 17,000 17,000 miles per hour.
03:31And now gently coasting to a soft splashdown 200.
03:39Copy 200 meters brace for splashdown.
03:49As you can see there on your screen continuing to monitor progress of the dragon spacecraft.
03:56And we're going to stand by for splashdown located in the Gulf of America off the coast of Tallahassee Florida.
04:11And splashdown crew nine back on Earth.
04:26And SpaceX freedom splashdown good main release.
04:31Copy splashdown we see main chutes cut Nick, Alex, Butch, Sonny on behalf of SpaceX welcome home.
04:46It is an amazing what a ride.
04:51I see a capsule full of grams ear to ear.
05:10And as you can see on your screen we have visual confirmation of splashdown.
05:15Dragon freedom has returned home and NASA astronauts.
05:18System safety verifications are in progress.
05:21We'll report back when recovery personnel are in route.
05:30We're in section two four decimal 800 landing response and looking for your word.
05:38And the distance we can see the recovery vessel making its way.
05:49Copy you're in section two for the environmental assessment in four dot 800.
05:54That is not necessary today.
05:55So we will continue to have communications between the core and Nick Hague, the commander of Crew Dragon Freedom, which just splashed down two minutes ago off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, Dragon Freedom has returned home with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Sonny Williams, Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunoff.
06:23They're back on Earth after approximately 17 hours of a return journey from space.
06:28The SpaceX recovery ship and team have been waiting for Dragon Splashdown and they will now make their way to the splashdown location.
06:37The teams have been ready and waiting about three nautical miles away.
06:40So it's going to take them about 30 minutes or so to make their way to.
06:45Freedom.
06:49Copy stable one.
06:50We see the same.
06:55It's going to take about 30 minutes for the recovery team to make their way over to Nick, Sonny, Butch and Alexander, who are still seated and secured inside that Dragon spacecraft there on your screen.
07:08Incredible views there of that thermal protection system or TPS.
07:13But that Dragon capsule was pristine white color before it departed the station, and we can see how the reentry phase, you know, the thermal protection system did its job.
07:25Now, if you're wondering what that hole that like bucket area is, that is underneath the side hatch.
07:32That is where the main parachutes were stored.
07:36So when we saw the Dragon capsule docked at station, it looked very different.
07:41The panel that protects and covers the main parachutes that was still intact, as well as the panels that enclosed where the drogue parachutes are located.
07:51We can see those fast boats.
07:53SpaceX is go for recovery personnel to approach.
07:56Expect personnel alongside in the next few minutes.
08:05We can see those fast boats.
08:07We weren't kidding when we said they were fast.
08:09Well, it does take about 30 minutes for the main recovery vessel to make its way over to the capsule.
08:15These fast boats will be doing a couple of things simultaneously.
08:20A couple of them are going to be working to retrieve the parachutes you see in the background there of this drone shot.
08:27Those parachutes will be retrieved from the ocean surface.
08:31We want to make sure we we are able to pull those out.
08:35The recovery vessel there closest to the spacecraft is going to be performing some safety checks.
08:42We can see there they're using an instrument that is basically working to detect if there are any hypergolic vapors or fumes that are still residing in and or around the Draco thruster nozzles or outlets.
08:59The hypergolic fuel which is necessary for on-orbit burns to maneuver the spacecraft.
09:09Unfortunately, those hypergolics are unable to be breathed.
09:14They are toxic and so this team here is doing those initial safety checks to make sure that it is safe for the rest of the recovery team to approach the spacecraft.
09:24They're also checking to make sure that any residuals from the the pyros are safe and are not going to cause any issues.
09:36We can see the team working their way around the spacecraft to do these basically these these sniff tests on all of those Draco thrusters.
09:46And as we continue to await the recovery of our Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Sonny Williams, Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov inside.
09:59Dragon has continuously already rather autonomously completed several steps to safe itself following splashdown.
10:07We are continuing to see Dragon in what is known as stable one configuration.
10:13That's kind of the ideal configuration following splashdown.
10:17It's upright and the Dragon capsule is in the right configuration for it to be hoisted into the recovery vessel Megan.
10:24Which you do see a little ways off in your screen.
10:28Approaching Dragon will continue to remain live on air with you through that recovery process all the way through the point where the crew is extracted from the Dragon spacecraft.
10:40Now if you are just joining us the mission has gone smoothly so far.
10:44Dragon successfully splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee Florida at 2 57 p.m pacific 5 57 p.m eastern time this afternoon.
10:54Approximately 17 hours prior to splashdown Dragon autonomously undocked from the International Space Station.
11:01Completed a series of departure burns jettison its trunk section and performed its final burn.
11:08The deorbit burn this placed the Dragon spacecraft on a trajectory toward Tallahassee Florida.
11:15Dragon successfully re-entered the Earth's atmosphere followed by deployment of its parachutes to slow the spacecraft down to a gentle splashdown.
11:24We're now going to follow the freedom hypergolf sweeps and unfired ordinance checks are nominal rigging is in progress.
11:32Approximately 25 minutes until capsule lift. Standby for PMC with SpaceX flight surgeon.
11:45And so what we did just here there was communications that those hypergolf checks
11:49were complete they didn't find any of that upon those checks so we'll continue to move through
11:54the timeline. Next up is a process called rigging which you see happening right now on your screen.
12:00This is when a SpaceX recovery personnel actually works to climb aboard the capsule and work through
12:06procedures ahead of lifting onto the nest of the recovery vessel Megan. We heard it's going
12:12to be about 25 minutes or so until that lift actually takes place.
12:17Okay freedom the next call will be from the SpaceX flight surgeon on Dragon and ground private.
12:26Understand.
12:31Call outs there indicating that the crew will have the opportunity to do
12:35a quick check-in with the SpaceX flight surgeon. This is standard procedure.
12:41For every Dragon spacecraft when it returns to the when it returns to earth it's just an initial
12:48check-in make sure everybody is doing okay. They will also have another check-in with the
12:54with the flight surgeon once they are on board that recovery vessel that you see there in the
12:59background. We can now see that SpaceX recovery into recovery team is now on board with the
13:06in the background. We can now see that SpaceX recovery into recovery team member
13:13they're on top of the Dragon spacecraft. They are going to be working to install plugs
13:19in the Draco thrusters to ensure that none of those to ensure that no more