While the world awaited the March 18 return of two now-famous American astronauts who spent nine months — instead of eight days — at the International Space Station, the U.S. Coast Guard was planning for alternatives that may have involved the waters around Dry Tortugas National Park.
On the morning of March 18, the Coast Guard issued an advisory announcing the area known as “offshore Tortuga” as an alternative re-entry location for the returning SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. The pair launched in June, expecting to remain in space for an eight-day mission that stretched to nine months in what has become one of the world’s best-known travel delays when their return spacecraft, the Boeing Starliner, experienced helium leaks and a malfunctioning thruster, rendering it unable to return them to Earth.
In addition to Williams and Wilmore, the SpaceX Dragon capsule returned to Earth with two other astronauts, Nick Hague of NASA and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
According to NASA, “Williams and Wilmore went to space to test Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft that was to provide NASA with a second American option to get astronauts to and from orbit. After the spacecraft experienced problems with its propulsion system, NASA sent it back to Earth in September with no crew aboard. Williams and Wilmore then became full crew members of the space station, conducting science experiments and performing upkeep. The station has been continuously occupied by astronauts for almost 25 years.”
In preparation for the capsule’s return to Earth this week, the Coast Guard had designated five splashdown zones in the Gulf, advising boaters and mariners to steer clear of those areas during potential spacecraft recovery operations. The potential splashdown zones for the SpaceX Dragon capsule were offshore near Pensacola, Destin, Alligator Point, Clearwater and the Dry Tortugas.
“Navigation hazards from space capsule reentry activities may include free-falling debris and/or descending vehicles or vehicle components under various means of control,” the advisory stated. “Mariners are urged to avoid the reentry sites during reentry windows as detailed above.”
The reentry window for the Tortugas area was set to expire on March 25.
The alternative splashdown areas proved unnecessary, as the capsule parachuted into the gulf waters off Tallahassee just before 6 p.m ET on March 18.
Video coverage of the final stages of the capsule’s descent, including the splashdown and crew recovery, can be seen on Nasa TV and the new streaming service Nasa+.
After the vehicle splashed down off Florida’s Gulf Coast, crews aboard a SpaceX recovery ship brought the capsule and its occupants on board. They were flown to Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is the hub of NASA’s human space flight operations.
