For the first time since 1975, a NASA project ended with a landing on the water. On Sunday, astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley took the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule from the International Space Station to a location in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola, the first time the Gulf had been used for a NASA water landing.
Unfortunately, the site was not well secured, perhaps due to the novelty of organizing a landing on the water in a popular navigation domain, and more than a dozen personal boats were presented to appreciate the capsule, even though it is only a floating piece. steel and going to see him was quite damaging to everyone involved.
Poisonous vapors that accumulated around the astronaut-delayed capsule are turned off and may also have been very destructive to a navigator who got too close. Overabundance of ships would probably also have hampered emergency operations, but fortunately, no situation has occurred.
The Coast Guard sent an 87-foot patrol boat and a 45-foot jet boat to make a 10-nautical mile domain transparent 4 hours before disembarkation. It also sent a radio message to domain navigators warning them to move away from the domain. But those efforts were not enough to prevent the boats that converged on it once the capsule, aided by 4 parachutes, from floating into the water.
– Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) August 2, 2020
Third-elegant NCO John Michelli said the Coast Guard did not have the means or official authority to prevent boaters from entering the area. He also blamed the navigators themselves.
NASA’s outgoing message repented and aimed to do more in the future.
“I think the whole of America is very excited to see the capsule land in the water, but yes, it’s something we want to do better next time,” said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Next time it may be by the end of September, as NASA has already decided that 4 astronauts will be completed and, since this project was developed smoothly, SpaceX cars will likely be qualified for normal operational projects.