Freedom capsule splashes down successfully
SpaceX’s Freedom capsule has successfully splashed down off the coast of Florida, and has now been fished out of the water.
UPDATE: All four astronauts have now exited the capsule.
In watching the live stream, it is important to once again note that no one involved in this recovery operation is a government employee. The entire operation is being run by SpaceX, a private American company doing this work for profit.
It will take a bit more time before the astronauts come out of the capsule, as they must do some leak checks to make sure everything is safe.
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SpaceX’s Freedom capsule has successfully splashed down off the coast of Florida, and has now been fished out of the water.
UPDATE: All four astronauts have now exited the capsule.
In watching the live stream, it is important to once again note that no one involved in this recovery operation is a government employee. The entire operation is being run by SpaceX, a private American company doing this work for profit.
It will take a bit more time before the astronauts come out of the capsule, as they must do some leak checks to make sure everything is safe.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I believe that you have never, or perhaps only vary rarely, used the word “stranded” to refer to these astronauts in your coverage of this story. For which we should all thank you. The number of headlines I’ve seen in the last few days that refers to the Boeing test astronauts as having been stranded is just amazing. And of course they never were, they could have been brought home at almost any time, NASA and Rosocosmos would just have to agree on repurposing capsules to do it.
David Eastman: You are correct. The only time I have used the word “stranded” was to explain it was the wrong word to use.
Note however that Roscosmos was never involved, and never had to be involved, except in terms of scheduling dockings to ISS. NASA had access to all the capsules it needed from SpaceX, whenever it decided to do anything.
I saw elsewhere that there was a historic first in this flight: first astronauts to splash down in the Gulf of America.
The SpaceX hosts referred to it as the “Gulf of America”, but mostly they used verbal constructs that avoided it – like “Off the coast of Tallahassee”.
No, I’m not sure why Trump, whom I support, seems to love to engage in these petty controversies that seem mainly to elevate his enemies in the eyes of low-info voters. Perhaps the strength it takes to sustain the fight against the swamp demands constant small provocations and victories? In this case I’ll say it – the end justifies the means!
Ps. If Kate Tice calls it the Gulf of America, then it’s the Gulf of America!
I’m totally confused how all of this worked out. The linked video says Williams and Wilmore got to the ISS on June 6 and Hague and Gorbunov arrived on September 29 “aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom spacecraft, which was docked to the station since its arrival in September, and has since brought Crew-9 back home”
But they just launched a capsule up there with 4 people. Did that stay up there to bring that crew home later?
It sounds like Williams and Wilmore had a capsule capable of bringing them home for several months, but they waited unto the other two’s mission was complete to come home. And the capsule that was recently launched had nothing to do with them coming home.
Is that right? I’m so confused!
Minor spelling edit: …have now “exited” the capsule.
David M. Cook: Fixed. Thank you.
Normally, a crew comes home on the capsule they arrived in, as it has the custom seats that fit them. Williams and Wilmore went up on the Boeing capsule, and didn’t have proper SpaceX suits and seats. Crew 9 went up with only two astronauts instead of the usual four, with spare suits and seats for Williams and Wilmore to use on the return.
The little bit of controversy is over that decision to just return them with the normal end of the Crew 9 mission, rather than send up a dedicated Dragon just to bring them home. It seems to be a case of “Yes, Biden applied some anti-Musk pressure to cause that decision, but it was almost certainly the one NASA was going to make anyways without that pressure.”
Darwin Teague: Each crew treats the capsule that brings them to ISS as their lifeboat. They go up in it, and they come down in it. Since the Starliner crew couldn’t come back in their own capsule, the next capsule to launch, Freedom, came up with only two astronauts, thus making that capsule the lifeboat/return capsule for the two Starliner astronauts. Since that Freedom mission was scheduled to last six months, returning in February, NASA thus forced those two astronauts to do a nine month mission.
The new capsule that launched earlier this week, Endurance, brought a new crew to replace the Freedom crew on ISS. Endurance will remain docked to ISS until that crew is scheduled to return, in about six months.
I hope that helps ease your confusion.
NASA didn’t want to bother its schedule. Space X can send a used capsule up inside a month. They could have sent it up with just cargo if they didn’t want to just send up a ship with no other purpose.
NASA is in charge of ISS, who is in charge or NASA? And why didn’t they care about the astronauts?
”I believe that you have never, or perhaps only vary rarely, used the word ‘stranded’ to refer to these astronauts in your coverage of this story.”
Yes, it’s a testament to Bob’s professionalism that he remains accurate in his writing about their mission and doesn’t descend into ‘gotcha journalism’ like so many others.
”It sounds like Williams and Wilmore had a capsule capable of bringing them home for several months, but they waited unto the other two’s mission was complete to come home. And the capsule that was recently launched had nothing to do with them coming home.”
Yes, that’s all correct. The capsule that brought them home has been on station since September. The capsule that launched recently flew the replacement crew for all four members of Crew 9 on a regularly scheduled crew swap.
”NASA didn’t want to bother its schedule.”
Of course not. Wilmore and Williams are two of the most experienced astronauts at NASA, each with multiple long-duration spaceflights and EVAs under their belts. Sending up a dedicated “rescue” mission would have had the effect of spending a quarter billion taxpayer dollars to replace those experienced astronauts with a couple of rookies. There was no good reason to do that.
“vary rarely, used the word ‘stranded'”
Psyop Opt-Out Form
“I don’t care about this particular psyop”
“I understand that this form is for the current psyop only.”
“This form may be resubmitted for each psyop.”
https://t.ly/B4VNr
SpaceX capsule recovery ship is named MV Megan…one of two….built in Alabama.
“Sending up a dedicated “rescue” mission would have had the effect of spending a quarter billion taxpayer dollars to replace those experienced astronauts with a couple of rookies.”
They wouldn’t have been “replacing” Butch and Suni. Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman had been assigned to Crew 9/Expedition 72 to begin with. They had to be removed from the flight and the expedition to add Butch and Suni to it.
Calling them “rookies” is also a misleading polemic. Cardman and Wilson trained for years for this mission
And this was almost certainly the last NASA mission for Butch (62) and Suni (59). You have to keep a steady pipeline of new astronauts to retain a healthy astronaut corps.
It should be realized that this entire discussion revolves around the high expense of launching crew capsules at this point in time. If a man rated vehicle could be launched and recovered for ~$5M at will, then a replacement vehicle would probably have returned them last summer.
I thought they were only scheduled for a 7 day mission.
I am sure the two would have done pretty much anything to stay up and never complained about the time in orbit. But they could have been sent back on the next manned return. Instead they were skipped over.
the coverage on NSF was very good. The young guys they have doing commentary make for a very good show. The Astronauts, sitting 4 across, are pure passengers? No role in piloting their return? If so, was that the case for the shuttle and apollo? When Starliner came back I was thinking a human pilot could have helped in case there was a problem. But if the astronauts are passengers by design on Dragon, is that also the case on Starliner? During the wait to secure and then open Dragon it would have been interesting to hear how Dragon and Starline differ.
Hello Steve,
Both Starliner and Dragon are designed with full automation. And after all, both did uncrewed test flights to ISS, with the onboard computers doing everything. On Dragon, ISS docking and undocking is invariably done in automated mode.
But both vehicles are also designed for crew to take over at any time.
Steve Richter: To add to Richard M’s comment, both Apollo and the shuttle however docked entirely manually. In fact it wasn’t until the Dragon and Cygnus cargo capsules were launched that America finally developed robotic docking capability, with Dragon doing it first (Cygnus merely rendezvoused and was berthed using the station’s robotic arm).
Bob raises an interesting point about how American and Soviet/Russian approaches to piloting of crewed vehicles has . . . sort of flipped.
In the days of the Space Race, NASA and the Soviet space program took opposing approaches to this question. The Apollo CSM, like Gemini and Mercury before it, relied heavily on manual piloting for all operations, including rendezvous and docking. The Soviets emphasized automated operations right from the start. Cosmonauts would only be allowed to take manual control if an automated system, like the Igla docking system, had clearly failed.
Each approach reflected the mindset of each organization. The Soviets favored maximizing central control over their HSF operations, distrustful of the human element, and not just because of fear that a cosmonaut might attempt to defect with his spacecraft! Whereas the test pilots who formed NASA’s initial astronaut corps had considerable success in shaping the development of these vehicles for pilot control, an outlook that continued right into the Space Shuttle. That famous scene in THE RIGHT STUFF where the Mercury astronauts battle for installation of a window in the Mercury capsule took major liberties with, uh, history, but it did capture the ethos at work.
But now in the 2020’s, the American approach is fully automated, with both cargo and crew (and this is indeed an important SpaceX contribution). Whereas the Russians today do a significant amount of manual work, thanks to the erratic effectiveness of their Kurs docking navigation system (it has a 10% failure rate to date). But I think this reflects more than anything else the avionics technology of each country rather than any deeper philosophical outlook.
Richard M: You have just summarized in one comment the entire thesis of my book Leaving Earth.. As stated in the very first sentence: “Societies change.” Or as I stated in the last chapter, “Like ships passing in the night, the Russians have become freedom-loving capitalists, while the Americans have become xenophobic control-freaks.”
That was written in 2003. Much has changed since, especially in Russia for the worse. In America however we have at last now the first indications of a revolt of Americans against that control-freak government culture as represented then at NASA, which I describe at length in Leaving Earth.
Robert wrote: “In America however we have at last now the first indications of a revolt of Americans against that control-freak government…”
Thus the reaction FROM those very same control freaks. Giving power back to the States, back to the people, letting people and communities decide what is best, letting people keep more of their hard earned money. The Ruling Class / Deep State will need a boatload of antidepressants.
Darwin Teague,
David Eastman, mkent, and Robert left out the almost important point that the next crew (Crew 10, in this case) arrives at the ISS before the previous crew (Crew 9, including the Starliner crew) leaves the ISS. This gives time for a pass down between crews and does not leave the ISS shorthanded. It also gives the new crew time to acclimate before settling down to their hard work. This is Standard Operating Procedure for NASA and ISS.
pzatchok asked: “NASA is in charge of ISS, who is in charge or NASA? And why didn’t they care about the astronauts?”
The executive branch is in charge of NASA’s operations, and Congress is in charge of funding. The Vice President has been given the supervisory authority over NASA and has since at least the Kennedy administration.
The current administration cared about the astronauts so much that a couple of weeks into his term, Trump ordered that the astronauts be returned as soon as possible. Why the previous administration didn’t care about the astronauts is a mystery, but it most likely was political, in that the only available “rescue” vehicle is provided by a hated member of the opposition party. Should NASA have sent an extra Dragon earlier to bring back the two Starliner astronauts? Probably not. Did NASA do the right thing by converting their mission to the Crew 9 mission? Probably. Did NASA do wrong to insist that a brand new Dragon be used for the Crew 10 mission? Yes. NASA should have swapped out a different Dragon as soon as the new one was going to be delayed.
I say this last point for two reasons: First, the Starliner astronauts should not have been subject to a long mission, and making it even longer is not a good idea. Second, NASA assigns six-month missions for health reasons. The only up side to this nine month stay of theirs is that we get additional data points for the health of astronauts that stay longer than six months but less than a year.
“I thought they were only scheduled for a 7 day mission. I am sure the two would have done pretty much anything to stay up and never complained about the time in orbit. But they could have been sent back on the next manned return. Instead they were skipped over.”
The Starliner mission was for eight days with an option for a two-month stay. I believe that astronauts tend to like being in space and are eager to be selected for missions. Staying longer also seems desirable, which is why neither of them complained about he longer stay. My recollection is that this was to be the last mission for both, so more time in space is even more desirable.
Returning on the Crew 9 mission Dragon would have meant that two other astronauts would have been left up there for a year. That is worse on their health than the nine months that Williams and Wilmore had to endure. The longer astronauts stay up there one a flight, the longer it takes to recover on Earth, and that makes it harder on their families, too.
Robert Zimmerman wrote: “In fact it wasn’t until the Dragon and Cygnus cargo capsules were launched that America finally developed robotic docking capability, with Dragon doing it first (Cygnus merely rendezvoused and was berthed using the station’s robotic arm).”
To clarify, it was the Crew Dragon that first docked robotically. The first version of Cargo Dragon berthed in the same way as the Cygnus. This berthing procedure was to arrive a few meters from the ISS airlock and use the robotic arm to bring the capsules the rest of the way to the docking port. The difference between berthing and docking is that the arm is used in the berthing maneuver and the capsule goes straight to the airlock in the docking maneuver. I do not know whether Cargo Dragon and Cygnus still berth or if they now also dock to the ISS, but the modern Cargo Dragon has the ability to dock autonomously, with manual override as a possibility.
I still prefer the stick and rudder ethos.
Dragon being as automated as Vostok doesn’t sit well.