At the splashdown site, winds must be less than 10 miles per hour for the capsule to land safely. In addition, helicopters that take part in the recovery of the capsule must be able to fly and land safely. For most of the trip, Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley will be sleeping. Any return journey that exceeds six hours has to be long enough for the crew to get some sleep between undocking and splashdown, Daniel Huot, a NASA spokesman, said in an email. Otherwise, because of the extended process that leads up to undocking, the crew would end up working more than 20 hours straight, “which is not safe for dynamic operations like water splashdown and recovery,” Mr. Huot said.

Source: International New York Times August 01, 2020 15:40 UTC