How Will The Crew-9 Onboard the SpaceX Dragon Re-Enter the Earth?

Washington DC: NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who were stranded at the ISS for more than 9 months are on their way back home onboard SpaceX Crew Dragon Spacecraft along with NASA Astronaut Nick Hague and Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. It will take the Spacecraft approximately 17 hours to complete its re-entry and land safely back home.

Crew-9 undocked from the Zenith Port of the ISS, which is the space-facing port of the Harmony Module at 1:05 AM EST. Undocking refers to the controlled procedures of separating a spacecraft, satellite or a module from another structure.

Undocking is followed by Separation procedure where thrusters are fired to move away the spacecraft, and accordingly, the Draco Thrusters gets activated which provided the boost they need to navigate and adjust the attitude of the spacecraft. This process involved a series of four departure burns in order to move away from the ISS and towards the re-entry orbital trajectory which is aligned with the splashdown site. 

Also Read: Who Are The Other 2 Astronauts Returning To Earth Along With Sunita Williams And Butch Wilmore

As the Dragon approaches the re-entry, the spacecraft will be orientally adjusted so that the Heat Shield faces downwards to protect the Dragon and its Crew from the intense atmospheric frictional heat upon entering the atmosphere which can raise the temperatures up to 1,600°C or 2,912°F. The Heat Shield acts as an insulator by redirecting, reflecting or absorbing the blazing heat. It is the most critical stage as any malfunction can result in the loss of lives of the crew. 

After entering the Earth’s atmosphere, four parachutes will be deployed to slow down the terminal velocity of the spacecraft. Terminal velocity refers to the speed at which an object (here, spacecraft) falls towards the ground after entering the Earth’s Atmosphere.

Expected time of splashdown is 5:57PM EDT (2:57 PM PDT) on March 18, 2025 off the coast of Florida. potentially, seven splashdown sites have been selected and the exact location will depend upon the local weather conditions. Recovery ships of SpaceX will be ready to retrieve the Astronauts from Dragon Spacecraft.