The two NASA astronauts who rode to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon are heading home for a Sunday splashdown in the Gulf …
The two NASA astronauts who rode to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon are heading home for a Sunday splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, capping a two-month voyage in space that marked NASA’s first crewed mission from home soil in nine years. Crew Dragon “Endeavor” decoupled from the orbital station at 7:35 p.m. ET carrying U. S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley ahead of a Sunday afternoon splashdown off the coast of Pensacola, Florida — the first procedure of its kind in a privately built space capsule. “It’s been a great two months, and we appreciate all you’ve done as a crew to help us prove out Dragon on its maiden flight,” Hurley told the remaining U. S. station crew member Chris Cassidy, as Crew Dragon autonomously eased away from its docking port to begin the 21-hour journey home. NASA and SpaceX — monitoring the crew’s return from Houston, Texas and SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California — ruled out splashdown options in the Atlantic earlier this week due to Tropical Storm Isaias, a cyclone expected to churn alongside Florida’s east coast as a hurricane in the coming days.
