SpaceX to attempt rare nighttime splashdown of Crew Dragon

Florida Today

In this image from video made available by NASA, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is hoisted onto a ship in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast after it returned from a mission to the International Space Station. It marks the first time in 50 years that a capsule designed for astronauts returned from space by splashdown in the ocean. (NASA via AP)

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Due to high winds in the landing zone, NASA and SpaceX have decided to push the splashdown of astronauts aboard the Dragon capsule to very early Sunday morning.

Teams are now targeting a return to Earth at 2:57 a.m. Sunday, May 2, in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.

This will be the 2nd nighttime splashdown and recovery in space history. In 1968, the Apollo 8 crewed capsule performed a pre-dawn splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The crew Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 8:35 p.m. Saturday to begin the journey home carrying astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi.

The prime and backup splashdown zones will be determined the day before undocking. Any late changes could occur within about six hours of undocking depending on several factors such as weather in the splashdown area.

The Coast Guard’s 8th District in New Orleans issued a 2-mile safety zone for the splashdown area in an attempt to keep pleasure boaters from getting too close to the spacecraft.

Once they astronauts are removed from the capsule they will helicoptered to an air strip and board a NASA aircraft to return to Houston.

You will be able to watch live splashdown coverage at floridatoday.com

Contact Rachael Joy at 321-242-3577. Follow her on Twitter @Rachael_Joy.