SpaceX Crew Dragon carrying NASA astronauts to depart space station today

Apr 6, 2020
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I watched the departure of the Crew Dragon this afternoon from the ISS (really cool) & was wondering about something. The commentators mentioned (more than once) that the guys will be going to sleep tonight. Why is it necessary that they must sleep tonight? They did mention something about how on ISS they see up to 16 sunrise/sunsets in a 'normal' day. Since the trip back takes less than 24 hours to get back to Earth, why would they need to sleep?
 

Wolfshadw

Moderator
I missed the broadcast, but was there any indication of how long the astronauts has been awake BEFORE departure? Add 19 hours on top of that and wouldn't you want a "sleep" scheduled in there somewhere? Even if they were awaken just before departure preparations had started, you definitely want the crew well rested before they try to perform a re-entry procedure. You do not want to be tired and in a brain-fog in the event of an emergency.

-Wolf sends