SpaceX Dragon made its first Autonomous Undocking from International Space Station in January 12 2021 for its returned to Earth.
Dhaliya Nazreen
SpaceX Dragon | credits: Wikipedia
SpaceX Dragon made its first Autonomous Undocking from International Space Station in January 12 2021 for its returned to Earth and reached here on 13th. SpaceX Dragon is a class Reusable Cargo Space Craft developed by SpaceX, a Private American Space Transportation Company. SpaceX used a Falcon 9 rocket to launch CRS 21, the first flight to use the upgraded version of its Dragon Space Craft to the Space Station on Dec 6 2020 from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre and it arrived the Space Station around 24 hours later. The mission was also the first time that two Dragons are docked at the space station at the same time. The Dragon Space Craft launched with four astronauts on NASA' s Crew 1 mission.
The first undocking by an uncrewed US Space Ship saw SpaceX's CRS 21 Cargo Dragon back from Harmony module's Space Sport at 9:05 am EST (1405 GMT). Live views on NASA Television showed the Space Craft manuering in orbit as it left Space Station as both Space Craft sailing above South Atlantic Ocean.
The Space Craft took around 36 hours for SpaceX Dragon for returning to Earth. The Space Craft is reached to splashdown on Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday Jan 13 2021. As informed NASA & SpaceX didn't broadcast of live splash down.
The @SpaceX #CargoDragon splashed down off the coast of Tampa, Florida, today at 8:26pm ET loaded with valuable science experiments-ISS Tweeted
SpaceX contain 2500 kg of scientific experiment and other gear back to Earth. SpaceX's upgraded Cargo Dragon can carry 20% more cargo than previous Dragon Space Craft. Ancestor Dragon Space Craft were berthed to Space Station by an outpost robotic Canadrum 2.
Dragon returned to Earth with four main parachute assisted landing in Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. The arrival site allow SpaceX to return the samples and experiment to researches faster than before with 4 hours of splash down. Some of the returning experiment include biofilms that may corrode Space Craft stainless steel structures, techniques to help emergency navigation in outer space and many live mice are taking part in long-term studies to explain why astronauts' sight changes in space.
Dragon CRS 21 mission marks as a milestone for SpaceX, it is the first cargo ship mission the company had flown under its Second Commercial Resupply service contract with NASA called CRS 2. And now Autonomous Undocking is yet another achievement of SpaceX in Space expedition.