NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts, who spent 170 days in orbit aboard the Dragon spacecraft…
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 astronaut, Who spent 170 days in orbit aboard the Dragon spacecraft, completing the agency’s fourth commercial crewed mission to the International Space station by splashing safely off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida on Friday.
NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted skydive at 4:55 p.m. EDT.
Team board SpaceX The recovery ships have retrieved the spacecraft and the astronauts. After returning to shore, all astronauts will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Cristoforetti will then board the plane to Europe.
“Welcome Home page Crew-4! This international crew spent almost six months on International Space Station conduct science for the benefit of all. Their work on the orbital lab will help prepare future explorers for future space missions,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
He added, “Working and living on the space station is an opportunity of a lifetime, but it also requires sacrifices for these explorers, especially time away from loved ones. Kjell, Bob , Jessica and Samantha, thank you for your contributions over the past six months to science, innovation and discovery!”
Crew Dragon-4 launched at 3:52 a.m. EDT April 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Less than 16 hours later, Dragon landed Harmony the module’s space-out port. The astronauts unloaded from the same port at 12:05 p.m. Friday, to begin their trip home.
Hines, Lindgren, Watkins and Cristoforetti traveled 72,168,935 miles on their mission, spending 170 days on the space station and completing 2,720 orbits around the Earth. Lindgren has logged in space for 311 days of her two flights, and with the completion of their flight today, Cristoforetti has logged in space for 369 days on two of her flights, making her second on the list. All-time books for most days in a woman’s space. . The Crew-4 mission was Hines and Watkins’ first spaceflight.
Throughout their mission, Crew-4 astronauts contributed to a wide range of science and maintenance activities as well as technology demonstrations. Cristoforetti completed two spacewalks with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev to perform station maintenance and upgrades.
Crew 4 continues their investigative work documenting how improvements to the space diet affect immune function and the gut microbiome, determining the effect of fuel temperature on flammability of materials, exploring possible adverse effects on astronaut hearing from instrument noise and microgravity, and investigating whether additives increase or decrease the stability of emulsion or not.
The astronauts also studied microgravity-induced changes in the human immune system similar to aging, tested a new water-regenerating membrane, and tested an alternative to concrete. Cardboard is made of materials found in lunar and Martian dust.
The spacecraft, dubbed Freedom by Crew-4, will return to Florida for inspection and processing at SpaceX’s Dragon Lair, where teams will test the spacecraft’s data and performance during flight. .
Flight Crew-4 is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and its return flight The earth following NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 launch, which docked on October 6, embarking on another scientific expedition.
The goal of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station. This has provided more research time and increased opportunities for exploration on humanity’s microgravity test plate for exploration, including helping NASA prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
