THE NASA Warren astronaut “Woody” Hoburg which joined the body of astronauts in 2017 and Piloted Spacex’s Crew-6 mission in 2023 recalled the intense and visceral experience of returning to Earth aboard a Crew Dragon capsule during a brief telephone call with CNN This Tuesday (18).
Notably, onboard astronauts will hear a series of deafening noises – starting with a very, very high snap ”emitted by spacecraft pyrotechnic devices by ejecting their rear compartment.
This compartment, a cylindrical complement located at the base of Crew Dragon, houses solar panels and other essential components during the flight. However, it is not necessary in reentry, so the spacecraft is designed to discard it, allowing it to disintegrate in the atmosphere before the final descent.
As Crew Dragon plunges back into the atmosphere, extreme heat accumulates outside the capsule, while intense gravitational forces gradually increase – providing astronauts one of the first gravitational sensations since they left Earth months earlier.
The crew are protected from the heat of the reentry by a thermal shield fixed outside Crew Dragon.
But Hoburg stated that “he was definitely sweating just for working and feeling these g.”
“I couldn’t say if I felt the air temperature,” he recalled.
Was this content originally published in what you feel during the reentry on Earth? Astronaut responds on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
