Just minutes after the two American astronauts landed on Sunday, several pleasure boats crowded around the capsule. NASA and SpaceX intend to put in place the necessary means to prevent this from happening again.
You may have followed it live. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley landed off Florida on Sunday, successfully completing the Demo-2 mission. Those who followed the NASA images then saw several boaters crowding around the capsule.
According to NASA boss Jim Bridenstine, the US Coast Guard had indeed cleared the area before the arrival of the two astronauts. In contrast, the recovery vessel Go Navigator of spaceX, in charge of extracting the capsule, arrived on site about 30 minutes later . Meanwhile, many boats had come closer to the ship, some a little too close.
The SpaceX teams then had to fend off the invading boaters. "There are things we're going to have to look at, that we have to do better for sure “, said Bridenstine.
“The lesson learned here is that we probably need more resources from the Coast Guard, and maybe more resources from SpaceX and NASA , added SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell during a briefing. It was a demonstration mission. We will definitely be better prepared next time s".
This little "hiccup" should obviously not affect the success of this mission. “It was an amazing day “, said Gwynne Shotwell at a press conference after the flight, referring to “tremendous relief after months of anxiety. "We are officially entering a new era of spaceflight “, for his part added Jim Bridenstine.
NASA and SpaceX will now closely study the data collected during this test flight. Based on this analysis, the capsule will likely be certified for future operational missions to the International Space Station. In particular, there is talk of reusing it as part of the Crew-2 mission, scheduled for spring 2021 .
Meanwhile, the first real trade mission – Crew-1 – is due to take off next September . It will carry four Expedition 64 crew members:American astronauts Michael S. Hopkins, Victor J. Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
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