Two NASA astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday afternoon, completing a two-month mission that sent them to the International Space Station to test SpaceX’s groundbreaking Crew Dragon shuttle capsule.
Aug. 2 (UPI) — Two NASA astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday afternoon, completing a two-month mission that sent them to the International Space Station to test SpaceX’s groundbreaking Crew Dragon shuttle capsule.
Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken landed gently in the Endeavour capsule off Pensacola, Fla., at 2:48 p.m. EDT, assisted by two sets of parachutes that slowed the descent. A crew from the SpaceX Go Navigator hoist the capsule onto the vessel.
The crew was delayed from leaving the capsule initially because technicians detected unacceptable levels of dinitrogen tetroxide, one of the two fuels used in Crew Dragon, coming from the service section of the capsule.
That section is sealed off from the area in which the astronauts ride, but engineers purged the gas to reduce the chance of the two men breathing toxic fumes.
Behnken emerged from the capsule at 4:08 p.m. EDT, and was taken by stretcher — a routine procedure — to the ship’s medical quarters for a checkup by the NASA medical team.
