The flight also marked the first manned flight launched from the United States since 2011, when the space shuttles were stopped. Since then, the Americans have been traveling on Russian rockets.
Ultimately, Dragon will regularly take four astronauts to the ISS at a time, from NASA and partner space agencies (Canada, Japan, Europe, and potentially Russia). Frenchman Thomas Pesquet is currently training in the United States to probably take place in a flight of Dragon in 2021.
It will be the first time Dragon makes the return journey to Earth with men on board. Last year, she completed this mission empty and uneventful. The atmospheric reentry will test the resistance of the heat shield. Then, large parachutes will slow down the descent, before landing in the Atlantic, off Florida. It is the same method as for the old Apollo capsules in the 1960s and 1970s.
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