BREAKING: NASA astronauts return to Earth as SpaceX capsule splashes down in Gulf of Mexico
The astronauts then spent hours orbiting the Earth before splashing down off the Florida coast Sunday afternoon.— the first time that NASA astronauts have traveled to and from space aboard a commercially built spacecraft. Completion of the test flight is also a big accomplishment for SpaceX and the entire commercial spaceflight industry.
The Crew Dragon capsule had two sets of parachutes that slowed the spacecraft down as it traveled through the Earth’s atmosphere. The first chutes were deployed when the capsule was at an altitude of around 18,000 feet and traveling about 350 miles per hour. Four main parachutes were then released at an altitude of 6,000 feet, when the capsule was moving at around 119 miles per hour, according to SpaceX.
After the spacecraft splashed down, a recovery ship with more than 40 NASA and SpaceX personnel onboard rendezvoused with the capsule andhoisted it out of the water and onto the ship’s main deck. The astronauts are to undergo medical checks before boarding a NASA plane back to Houston. NASA has already announced the astronauts selected for the next Crew Dragon launch to the space station, but the capsule will first need to complete NASA’s certification process. After Behnken and Hurley's return to Earth, their spacecraft will now undergo a series of inspections in Florida to assess how the vehicle performed throughout its flight.
If certified, the next Crew Dragon capsule will launch NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, to the space station in late September. The four-person crew will subsequently spend six months living and working aboard the orbiting outpost.
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