After six months of mission, how will Thomas Pesquet’s return to Earth go? – LCI

After six months in space, Thomas Pesquet and the three astronauts of the Crew-2 mission had to leave the International Space Station, heading for Earth. But the quartet will finally leave the ISS on Monday at best, according to SpaceX. It should therefore land off Florida “not earlier” Tuesday during the day, according to our information.

Concretely, it is thanks to the Crew Dragon capsule that Thomas Pesquet and his companions, the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide and the Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, will be able to reach the earth. Last May, the astronauts of the Crew-1 crew used the same spacecraft to reach the International Space Station.

The journey will begin once the hooks holding the ship to the station are released. From then on, the capsule’s thrusters will direct the astronauts so that they aim as closely as possible at the place of arrival. The astronauts will be in constant communication with the engineers on the ground to ensure the smooth running of the deorbiting. Because the first of the critical moments: the entry of Crew Dragon into the atmosphere.

At this stage, the temperature can reach 1600 ° C. If the braking is not performed properly, the capsule can miss the passage and drift through space, or worse, burn itself out. As for example, the tragic accident of February 1, 2003. Seven people had lost their lives following the combustion of the aircraft.

Once the stage is over, the astronauts will have less than an hour before the landing. It remains to reduce the crazy speed of the capsule approaching 800 km / h. To do this, the first parachutes will be deployed 10 km from the surface, before larger ones open at 3 km from the ground to stabilize the speed at 20 km / h.

A few minutes later, the capsule will be relieved of all the surpluses on board: fuel, oxygen, etc. Finally, at less than a meter from the ground, the retro-rockets will absorb the shock. “The impact was really minimal and just after the landing, you could feel the waves”, the Japanese remembered Soichi Noguch from the ISS.

The capsule will then be recovered by a Space X boat where a rescue team will come to support the astronauts, unable to walk. They will be helped out of the machine, carried and placed on chairs. They will then be subjected to a battery of medical tests.

Thomas Pesquet, for his part, will be transported very quickly to Cologne, Germany, where the European Astronaut Center is located. He will follow there “for three weeks an intense fitness program”, and will be subjected to the same tests as before and during its stay in zero gravity, in order to contribute to the collection of scientific data on the effect of a long stay in orbit on the human body.

To follow the event live, several channels exist: the Space X site will have its own feed, just like the site of the NASA or the CNES.