On 26 November 2022 SpaceX launched a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station. Using a new Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon spacecraft, the CRS-26 mission delivered 7,700 pounds of food, crew supplies, scientific experiments, and two solar arrays. After spending 43 days docked to the ISS, the Dragon departed Monday with 4,400 pounds of hardware and the results of scientific experiments.
This morning at 4:35am the Dragon fired its Draco engines near Australia to begin the deorbit. By 5:12am it was streaking thru the sky above southern Alabama leaving a long plasma trail in its wake. I watched the nearly two minute long reentry from the overlook between the Fox Den and Mollyhugger Hill parking lots in FDR State Park. Six minutes later it was splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa.
I first spotted the reentry when the Dragon was over Mississippi and tracked it until it dissappeared over the Gulf south of the Florida panhandle
