By New Scientist
and Press Association
NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are back on Earth after their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule made a successful splashdown.
The pair landed in the sea, off the coast of Florida, at around 7.48pm UK time on 2 August, after a 19-hour journey from the International Space Station (ISS).
Mission control said just after splashdown: “On behalf of the SpaceX and NASA teams, welcome back to planet Earth. Thanks for flying SpaceX.”
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Behnken and Hurley made history on 30 May when they became the first people to launch into low-Earth orbit on a commercial spacecraft, built by SpaceX.
Their mission, named Demo-2, also marked the first time NASA had launched astronauts from US soil in nine years, after the space shuttle fleet was retired.
The splashdown has ushered in a new era for NASA, which now has at least one commercial craft ready to carry people into space from the US.
It was the final step in the mission designed to test SpaceX’s human spaceflight system – including launch, docking, return and recovery operations.
The aerospace company’s first operational flight, Crew-1, is expected to take place in September, where a second Crew Dragon spacecraft will carry four astronauts to the ISS.
The capsule that carried Hurley and Behnken there will be refurbished and launched on SpaceX’s second operational crewed mission, Crew-2, due to take place early next year.
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