Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Elon Musk
Podcast. Now we're going to talk about
the latest SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, Crew Six, which
successfully returned from his journey to the International
Space Station. Now this mission involved 3
astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut and it came to a safe
conclusion just off the coast of Jacksonville, FL.
From the brilliant streak across the sky to the controlled
splashdown but at the future of SpaceX human space flights, this
is something that we are all going to be intrigued about now.
But before we move on, I'd like to give a shout out to everyone
who supports this podcast by joining the Elon Musk Investors
Club. Your contributions enable us to
keep this show running every single day, covering the latest
in technology, space exploration, Tesla X and more.
And if you'd like to become a part of the Elon Musk Investors
Club and continue to make this show possible, go to
joinclubelon.com. That's join club elon.com.
Join club elon.com. Now let's get into the details
of this mission. Early Monday between 12:05 AM
and 12:17 AM, the Dragon Endeavor capsule meet is descent
back to Earth, creating a mesmerizing spectacle over the
Gulf of Mexico and central Northeast Florida.
An observer is even reported hearing Sonic booms as the
capsule pierced through the Earth's atmosphere.
This marks the fourth trip to space for Dragon Endeavor, which
had previously flown missions Axiom 1, Crew Two and Demo Two.
And upon touching down of the Atlantic Ocean, Crew 6 Commander
Stephen Bowen expressed his gratitude to SpaceX.
He said thanks SpaceX. We really appreciate all the
support from all the initial training through the launch
throughout the mission keeping us abreast of the status of the
vehicle and all the support all the way down.
Now Stephen Bowen was joined by NASA astronaut Woody Hoburg, the
United Arab Emirates Sultan Al Niade and Russian Cosmana Andrei
Fedyev, and they all closed the Hatch of this capsule and
departed from the International Space Station about 17 hours
before their grand splashdown. Now, the mission itself had
lasted about six months, focusing primarily on scientific
experiments and maintenance of the International Space Station.
And before reentry, the Dragon Endeavor performed its final of
5D orbit burns, sealing its fate for the descent back to Earth.
And during this process, the capsules heat shield had to
withstand temperatures up to 3500 degrees Fahrenheit.
As expected, the plasma layer around the capsule knocked out
communications with the crew for about 7 minutes, a standard
occurrence during reentry. Now let's talk about the moment
the capsule landed. SpaceX teams immediately
approached the capsule floating on the Atlantic waters to ensure
that no toxic propellants were leaking.
Following this, the capsule was hoisted up out of the deck of
Spacex's recovery ship Megan, named after NASA astronaut Megan
MacArthur. And medical checkouts for the
astronauts were done right there on the vessel before they
boarded a helicopter back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
From there, they'll return to NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Texas. Now this marks another milestone
for SpaceX, which has now flown 11 human spaceflight missions,
eight of which were contracted with NASA's Commercial Crew
Program. The other three missions, namely
inspiration for Axiom 1 and Axiom Two, were focused on
private astronauts. The latest mission, Crew Seven,
was launched just over a week ago with astronauts from NASA,
the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency, and a cosmonaut from Ross Cosmos.
Florida's next planned liftoff is a United Launch Alliance
Atlas 5 rocket, which was recently grounded due to
hurricane. Now this is a part of a national
security mission involving the US Space Force and the National
Reconnaissance Office. In addition, SpaceX plans to
launch another Falcon 9 carrying a batch of Starlink satellites
from Cape Canaveral Space Forest Station.
And SpaceX is having a banner year.
That only did the company successfully bring back the crew
from the ISS, but it also launched 62nd mission of the
year, putting 21 more Starlink satellites into orbit.
SpaceX is really pushing the envelope in terms of what's
possible in space exploration and satellite development.
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center
in Florida at 10:47 PM on Monday.
This is Spacex's 62nd launch this year, setting a new yearly
record for the company, outdoing its previous record sent last
year. In 2022, the first stage of the
Falcon 9 returned to a drone ship about 9 minutes after
liftoff, showcasing once again the capability of reusable
rockets, and the upper stage deployed the 21 satellites into
low Earth orbit roughly an hour after liftoff.
And according to information available on Spacex's website,
this mission also marked a significant milestone for the
Falcon Nine's first stage booster.
It was its 10th launch and landing earlier on Monday as we
were discussing Spacex's Dragon spacecraft successfully returned
for astronauts from the International Space Station.
The crew had been there for 186 days following their launch in
March, engaging in an array of tasks, from space walks to
scientific experiments and station management.
Now, in a post on his X platform formerly known as Twitter, Elon
praised the incredible work that SpaceX has done.
SpaceX, as this year, has been responsible for delivering
approximately 80% of all Earth payload mass to orbit.
To put that into perspective, China supplied about 10%, with
the rest of the world contributing the remaining 10%.
That's huge, and they're aiming to escalate the launch frequency
for 10 Falcon flights per month by the end of this year, and to
push it to 12 per month by 2024. And according to the current
stats, SpaceX has completed a total of 261 launches at 223
landings with 195 total reflights.
That's the type of innovation that sets the stage for
ambitious goals like Mars colonization with the Starship,
which has always been a longterm vision for SpaceX and Elon Musk.
Now looking at the future, the next Starlink launch is Friday
and taking off from Cape Canaveral in Florida and is for
collaborations with NASA. The next one is slated for at
least February of 2024, during which SpaceX will transport the
crew 8 astronauts to the International Space Station.
And yes, the hardware allocations for the Dragon and
Falcon rockets are already in the planning stages.
So summing this all up, whether it's bringing astronauts back to
the Earth or setting new records and satellite launches, SpaceX
is propelling everybody into a new era of space exploration as
missions like these that add building blocks to the
foundation of the future, where travel to the moon, travel to
Mars and beyond are all a possibility now, It's incredible
to think that we're living through this right now in an age
where all of this is happening right before our eyes.
So thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Elon
Musk Podcast. Don't forget to hit the
subscriber follow button on whatever podcast platform you're
tuning in from. It's free, really just takes a
moment. And also your support enables us
to keep delivering this daily podcast.
If you're interested in being a part of this journey and getting
even more behind the scenes content, remember to check out
the Elon Musk Investors Club at joinclubeloncom.
Now until next time, keep looking U take care of
yourselves and each other and I'll see you in the next one.