US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after a two-month voyage that was Nasa’s first crewed mission from home soil in nine years.
Behnken and Hurley, tallying 64 days in space, undocked from the station on Saturday and returned home to land their capsule in calm waters off Florida's Pensacola coast on schedule at 2.48pm after a 21-hour overnight journey aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour.
“This has been quite an odyssey,” Hurley told senior Nasa and SpaceX officials at a homecoming ceremony at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
“To be where we are now, the first crewed flight of Dragon, is just unbelievable.”
The successful splashdown, the first of its kind by Nasa in 45 years, was a final test of whether SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s spacecraft can transport astronauts to and from orbit — a feat no private company has accomplished before.
“This day heralds a new age of space exploration,” Musk said.
“I’m not very religious, but I prayed for this one.”
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said the successful mission marked “a new era of human space flight where Nasa is no longer the purchaser, owner and operator of all the hardware” but one of many future customers of space travel.
“Today we really made history,” Bridenstine told an earlier press conference.
Despite Coast Guard restrictions and safety risks, spectators in private boats surrounded the splashdown site dozens of kilometres from shore as SpaceX and Nasa recovery teams used a crane to hoist the spacecraft out of the water and onto a boat.
Hurley, giving a thumbs up as he was wheeled out of the spacecraft on a stretcher, a normal procedure as astronauts adjust to Earth's gravity, said: “I’m just proud to be a small part of this whole effort to get a company and people to and from the space station.”
“Thanks for doing the most difficult parts and the most important parts of human space flight — getting us into orbit and bringing us home,” Behnken told SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California, as the hatch door was opened.
For the return sequence, on-board thrusters and two sets of parachutes worked autonomously to slow the acorn-shaped capsule, bringing Behnken and Hurley’s speed of 28,163km/h in orbit down to 563.27km/h upon atmospheric re-entry, and eventually 24km/h at splashdown. — Reuters
Astronauts cap historic odyssey aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule
Image: BILL INGALLS/NASA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
Image: NASA
US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after a two-month voyage that was Nasa’s first crewed mission from home soil in nine years.
Behnken and Hurley, tallying 64 days in space, undocked from the station on Saturday and returned home to land their capsule in calm waters off Florida's Pensacola coast on schedule at 2.48pm after a 21-hour overnight journey aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour.
“This has been quite an odyssey,” Hurley told senior Nasa and SpaceX officials at a homecoming ceremony at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
“To be where we are now, the first crewed flight of Dragon, is just unbelievable.”
The successful splashdown, the first of its kind by Nasa in 45 years, was a final test of whether SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s spacecraft can transport astronauts to and from orbit — a feat no private company has accomplished before.
“This day heralds a new age of space exploration,” Musk said.
“I’m not very religious, but I prayed for this one.”
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine said the successful mission marked “a new era of human space flight where Nasa is no longer the purchaser, owner and operator of all the hardware” but one of many future customers of space travel.
“Today we really made history,” Bridenstine told an earlier press conference.
Despite Coast Guard restrictions and safety risks, spectators in private boats surrounded the splashdown site dozens of kilometres from shore as SpaceX and Nasa recovery teams used a crane to hoist the spacecraft out of the water and onto a boat.
Hurley, giving a thumbs up as he was wheeled out of the spacecraft on a stretcher, a normal procedure as astronauts adjust to Earth's gravity, said: “I’m just proud to be a small part of this whole effort to get a company and people to and from the space station.”
“Thanks for doing the most difficult parts and the most important parts of human space flight — getting us into orbit and bringing us home,” Behnken told SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California, as the hatch door was opened.
For the return sequence, on-board thrusters and two sets of parachutes worked autonomously to slow the acorn-shaped capsule, bringing Behnken and Hurley’s speed of 28,163km/h in orbit down to 563.27km/h upon atmospheric re-entry, and eventually 24km/h at splashdown. — Reuters
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Latest Videos
Most Read
News
News
News
News
News