The historic first manned commercial space flight has been successfully completed; on Sunday, August 2, it returned to Earth in the first splashdown in 45 years.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ‘Endeavor’ capsule, with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley inside , parachuted over the Gulf of Mexico to end an unprecedented test flight by Elon Musk’s company, two months after taking off from Florida.
As we noted, it is a doubly historic flight: in addition to being the first landing of a crew in 45 years, it has been aboard the first spacecraft built and operated to transport tourists to Earth orbit. The successful return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch starting next month and possible sightseeing flights next year.
According to information collected by Reuters, both astronauts were removed from the capsule by a recovery boat an hour after landing , and were taken out on a stretcher, a common procedure until the astronauts adapt again to Earth’s gravity. . Astronaut Douglas Hurley (@Astro_Doug) delivered the following words during the recovery: “I am proud to be a small part of this entire effort to get a company and people to and from the space station.” For his part, these were the words from Robert Behnken (@AstroBehnken): “Thank you for doing the hardest parts and the most important parts of human spaceflight – getting into orbit and getting us home.”
More than 40 health workers have treated the newcomers; four dozen doctors and nurses who, in addition, prior to landing, remained in quarantine for two weeks to avoid contact with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
SpaceX has made history with this mission, which launched on May 30 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It was the first time a private company had launched people into orbit, and it was also the first launch of NASA astronauts from its territory in nearly a decade.
The first splashdown in 45 years
But this mission is also historical for another reason. The last time NASA astronauts completed their return to Earth via a splashdown was on July 24, 1975 , in the Pacific, the scene of most of these splashdowns , during the end of the well-known joint US-Soviet mission. as Apollo-Soyuz.
Future commercial manned flights
SpaceX will now need six weeks to finish perfecting a new capsule before launching the next manned mission in late September, which will have four astronauts spend a full six months aboard the space station. The Hurley and Behnken capsule will be restored for another flight, which will take place next spring.
SpaceX’s plans for the first space tourists are slated for fall 2021 , and they will be three clients of a Houston company run by a former NASA official associated with SpaceX.
