Crew-2 Reentry May Be Visible Monday

NASA just tweeted the following information about the SpaceX Crew-2 mission:

The orbit of the ISS at that time is across the United States from northwest to southeast. NASA could be targeting the Cape or Daytona splashdown zones off the coast of Florida. This means the reentry path of the Crew Dragon spacecraft should be on a similar trajectory but more to the left (northeast).

If this schedule holds true the reentry should be visible from Harris County around 7:02am with the sonic boom being heard around 7:05am.

Update

NASA is now targeting a splashdown Monday night…

The new time means the reentry will occur over Mexico and the Gulf.

Update #2

I started crunching the numbers to see if it was feasible to see an ascending node reentry from the Pine Mountain ridge line (this is when the final orbit comes up from the south over Mexico and the Gulf). I knew from my observation of the CRS-23 reentry that approximately 400 miles from the splashdown zone the Dragon spacecraft would be approximately 40 miles in altitude. I also knew that Pine Mountain is approximately 265 from the Pensacola splashdown zone. Throwing all those numbers into the Pythagorean Theorem (which isn’t 100% accurate given the curvature of the Earth) I found the Crew-2 reentry might be visible about 3.5° above the horizon.

a is the altitude and b is the distance (265 miles to splashdown zone + 400 miles beyond that). Screen grabs from Calculator.net.

Looking at Google Earth I found the overlook between the Fox Den and Mollyhugger Hills parking lots provided and unobstructed view to the splashdown zone on a 218° compass heading.

Armed with all this info I was able to see the reentry. It did appear on the horizon a little further west than I anticipated. There was a family on the other side of the parking lot who were able to see it after I pointed it out.