SpaceX Dragon splashdowns get new destination

SpaceX Dragon splashdowns will no longer take place off the coast of Florida, as the company confirmed it would begin move the process to the West Coast starting next year.

A move that intends to reduce the risks of debris reentering from the Dragon capsule’s trunk section, SpaceX said that the splashdowns will now take place off the California coast.

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson confirmed SpaceX’s intentions in a Tweet earlier this week:

Excited to share a Space Beach update! Long Beach will be the new home to @SpaceX’s Dragon recovery vessel as their West Coast Recovery Operations team based out of the @portoflongbeach will welcome back both @NASA and other private astronauts who are returning to Earth from… pic.twitter.com/5G5hidM4sQ

— Office of Mayor Rex Richardson (@LongBeachMayor) July 28, 2024

The Dragon capsule is used to fly astronauts and cargo to and from Earth’s orbit, and has been a main piece of equipment used to deliver goods to the International Space Station (ISS) as a part of a contract SpaceX has with NASA.

SpaceX has used the East Coast for Dragon splashdowns for five years. Debris has been a concern and as a result, SpaceX is mixing it up.

The company said:

“When developing Dragon’s current reentry operations, SpaceX and NASA engineering teams used industry-standard models to understand the trunk’s breakup characteristics. These models predicted that the trunk would fully burn up due to the high temperatures created by air resistance during high-speed reentries into Earth’s atmosphere, leaving no debris. The results of these models was a determining factor in our decision to passively deorbit the trunk and enable Dragon splashdowns off the coast of Florida. In 2022, however, trunk debris from NASA’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station was discovered in Australia, indicating the industry models were not fully accurate with regards to large, composite structures such as Dragon’s trunk. SpaceX and NASA reviewed the data and performed additional materials testing to better understand the trunk’s break-up characteristics and improve the respective modeling.”

After a review, SpaceX determined the best course of action would be to push the splashdowns back to the West Coast.

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