NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken described in detail what it felt like and sounded like when SpaceX’s spacecraft came roaring back down to Earth for a successful splash down in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
The astronauts said they were surprised by how similar the experience was to what SpaceX had prepared them for.
The astronauts answered questions from NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Tuesday for the first time since they landed back on their home planet.
Hurley and Behnken launched on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, nicknamed Endeavour, from Kennedy Space Center on May 30, arriving on the International Space Station the next day. The launch marked the first human spaceflight from Florida’s coast in nearly nine years.
After more than two months in space, the duo journeyed back to Earth in Dragon Endeavour in about 19 hours, sleeping overnight in the spacecraft before the splashdown.
The landing Sunday went smoothly by all accounts as the spacecraft slowly descended into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola all while Tropical Storm Isaias was barreling up Florida’s Atlantic coast. The event marked the first spacecraft splashdown in 45 years.
Behnken and Hurley both said the videos SpaceX showed them of what they would see and hear and when they would experience it were very accurate. The videos were recorded when the SpaceX Crew Dragon made its first trip to the ISS but without astronauts on board last year.
Behnken walked through every step describing the descent to Earth.
Support teams and curious recreational boaters arrive at the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. The Demo-2 test flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program was the first to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and return them safely to Earth onboard a commercially built and operated spacecraft. Behnken and Hurley returned after spending 64 days in space. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) ((NASA/Bill Ingalls)rrFor copyright and restrictions refer to -�http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html)
The first part of the de-orbit events happened when the spacecraft separated from the trunk while Dragon was still in low-Earth orbit.
“All the separation events from the trunk separation through the parachute firings were very much like getting hit in the back of the chair with a baseball bat, you know, just a crack,” Behnken said.
Next, as the Dragon began its deorbit burn the capsule began coming back down to Earth.
“As we kind of descended through the atmosphere, I personally was surprised at just how quickly all the events all transpired. It seemed like just a couple minutes later after the burn was complete, we could look out the windows and see the clouds rushing by at a much accelerated rate,” Behnken said.
Behnken said the two continued to talk to each other even while experiencing 4.2 G-forces, even cracking a few jokes.
While the spacecraft heat shield protects the capsule and the astronauts, Behnken described a “warming of the capsule on the inside,” as it descended through Earth’s atmosphere.
Behnken said next, before the parachutes deployed, they could feel Crew Dragon maneuver itself for re-entry using its thrusters.
“It came alive. It started to fire thrusters and keep us pointed in the appropriate direction, the atmosphere starts to make noise, you can hear that rumble outside the vehicle,” Behnken said. “It doesn’t sound like a machine. It sounds like an animal coming through the atmosphere.”
The astronauts could feel the parachutes, first the drogue chutes, then the main parachutes deploy as the spacecraft slowed from 350 mph to near 15 mph for splashdown.
Behnken said “it was a pretty significant jolt” when the parachutes deployed.
Hurley and Behnken both complimented the teams at SpaceX that built the spacecraft.
“The vehicle was rock solid right up until the nominal drogue (parachute) deploy,” Hurley said, later adding, “My compliments to SpaceX and the Commercial Crew Program, the vehicle performed exactly how it was supposed to.”
The launch, docking and splashdown marked the final test flight for SpaceX’s astronaut capsule before NASA can issue a certification for regular flights for its astronauts. The spacecraft will be thoroughly inspected and refurbished before it flies another astronaut crew as early as next year.
After landing in the Gulf, the astronauts had to wait about an hour before the hatch was opened and they were helped out. That wait was partially due to some curious boaters who approached despite the Coast Guard attempting to warn them off and then because of a potential fume hazard.
While they waited, the astronauts used the satellite phone to make a few calls. The called any numbers they could remember, according to Hurley, including the flight director in Houston.
NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley, holds the hand of his wife Karen Nyberg as their son Jack, 10 looks on, after Hurley and astronaut Robert Behnken walked out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on their way to Pad 39-A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020. The two astronauts will fly on a SpaceX test flight to the International Space Station. For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts will blast into orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company. (AP Photo/John Raoux) (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“‘Hi, this is Bob and Doug, we’re in the ocean,‘” Hurley said they told the flight director.
The astronauts then called their wives, who were together in Houston, to tell them they had a safe landing.
“Having gone through this as a family member, you’re kind of helpless until you hear the voice of your loved one on the other end and this was a great chance to reassure them that we were in the water. We were OK. We were feeling good,” Hurley said.
After getting out of the spacecraft, the astronauts were taken by helicopter back to land. Then by jet back to Houston where they enjoyed some pizza, their first meal on Earth in more than 60 days.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
