The CRS-29 Dragon cargo spacecraft evacuated the space station assembly before the withdrawal.
According to the original plan, in the early morning of December 15, 2023 Beijing time (the afternoon of December 14, 2023 Eastern Standard Time), the CRS-29 Dragon cargo spacecraft will unlock and separate from the forward port of the Harmony node module of the International Space Station, starting the journey back to Earth. Due to the continued unfavorable weather conditions in the Florida region, the CRS-29 Dragon cargo spacecraft is tentatively scheduled to leave the space station at 06:05 Beijing time on December 20.
Worldwide, manned space missions are the space missions with the highest safety requirements, including manned space-to-earth round-trip, cargo supply, space station module launch and other missions, the launch and return process of such mission spacecraft will be affected by factors such as rendezvous and docking window, weather, space-to-earth readiness, mission ship and arrow status, among which weather is one of the most common influencing factors.
Footage of the CRS-29 Dragon cargo spacecraft before docking.
When the cold front transits, there are often cloudy days, rain and snow, wind, cooling and other weather phenomena, in which excessive wind speed and heavy rain and snow will significantly affect the safe return of the spacecraft, and too low temperature will affect the sea operations of search and rescue team members. Therefore, in order to achieve a safe and secure return, the CRS-29 "Dragon" cargo spacecraft chose to avoid its "edge".
The world's active cargo spacecraft include two types of non-reusable spacecraft (or disposable spacecraft) and reusable spacecraft, and the "Dragon" cargo spacecraft is the only model that can be reused, and the "Dream Chaser" planned to be launched in the first half of 2024 is also such a spacecraft;The other cargo ships in service are disposable spacecraft that will be destroyed by re-entry into the atmosphere by ablation at the end of the mission. Compared with the reusable spacecraft, the disposable spacecraft can almost ignore the impact of ground weather when returning, and re-entry can be done over Point Nemo at the end of the mission, which is one of the advantages of the disposable spacecraft, and the ability to return materials to the earth is one of the biggest advantages of the reusable spacecraft.
For now, the joint team will continue to assess the weather conditions as the cold front passes through the splash zone off the coast of Florida to determine the best time for the Dragon spacecraft to unlock and separate.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou.