Wednesday, May 30, 2012


Latest SpaceX News
Dragon to Depart Station early Thursday morning
Original Post Date:  Wednesday, May 30, 2012
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Image Credit: SpaceX
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The Expedition 31 crew of the International Space Station spent much of the day Tuesday working with the SpaceX Dragon cargo vehicle, reviewing procedures for the departure of the first commercial spacecraft to visit the station and packing it with items for return to Earth.
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Dragon, which delivered 1,014 pounds of non-critical cargo on its demonstration flight to the station, was cleared unanimously Tuesday by the station’s Mission Management Team for unberthing early Thursday.
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In reverse order of how Dragon was captured and berthed Friday, the crew will use the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach the vehicle from the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony node at 4:05am, move it away from the station and release it at 5:35am for return to Earth. The SpaceX team in Hawthorne, Calif., will run Dragon through about five hours of orbital operations before commanding it to a splashdown for recovery off the California coast.

Note: I’m pretty sure the above times are Central. But… just in case… You might check in an hour or so early in case I’m wrong or they get going earlier than said. It Happens!!!)
Looks to me like Dragon will be coming down sometime between 8:30am CDT and 11:30am CDT. More on this sometime this evening…
But for now, keep up with the latest at links below...
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Watch the Mission LIVE at

NASA Schedule on landing
- Coverage of the SpaceX/Dragon Unberthing from the ISS
1:30am - 2:30am CDT
- Coverage of the SpaceX/Dragon Deorbit Burn and Pacific Ocean Splashdown
9:15am - 11:00am CDT
(AGAIN: I’m pretty sure the above times are Central. But… just in case… You might check in an hour or so early in case I’m wrong or they get going earlier than said.)
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* Keep up with the Latest Mission Info
From NASA HERE
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POST UPDATE:
Thursday, May 31st
10:45am CDT
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10:42am CDT is the official Splashdown Time for Dragon this Thursday morning. Congrats go out to ALL the SpaceX team and NASA on a VERY successful, 1st time commercial mission.
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Welcome Home Dragon!
AubreyJ………
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All info compiled from the NASA.gov website
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