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Cape Canaverla – Two astronauts from the NASA they returned to Earth on Sunday in an exciting splashdown old-fashioned way, in which its parachute-held capsule fell into the Gulf of Mexico and thereby ended an unprecedented test flight for the company SpaceX de Elon Musk.
It is the first time in 45 years that American astronauts have returned to Earth with a parachute over the sea, and it was the first commercially manufactured and operated spacecraft. The return paves the way for the launch of another SpaceX crew, likely next month, and for space tourism trips next year.
Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken returned to our planet in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule less than a day after leaving the International Space Station and two months after taking off from Florida. The capsule fell into the calm waters of the gulf about 40 miles from Pensacola, and hundreds of kilometers from the tropical storm Isaiah that lashes the Florida coast in the Atlantic.
“Welcome back to planet Earth and thanks for flying with SpaceX,” stated Mission Control from the company’s headquarters.
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It really was an honor and a privilege for us
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The astronauts’ return home in the capsule nicknamed Endeavor was quick, hectic, and hot, at least outside.
The spacecraft went from a tremendous orbital speed of 17,500 miles per hour to 350 mph during reentry into the atmosphere, and finally from 15 mph to land. The maximum temperature level reached during the descent was 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The maximum G-forces the crew felt were estimated to be four to five times the force of Earth’s gravity.
The return of the astronauts capped a two-month mission that ended a protracted space launch drought from the United States., which during all that time depended on Russian rockets to transport astronauts to the space station, since the era of the American shuttles ended.
With Hurley and Behnken taking off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 30, SpaceX became the first private company to send people into Earth orbit. Now SpaceX is about to become the first to bring people back from orbit.
“The hardest part was throwing ourselves, but the most important thing is taking us home”Behnken stated hours before boarding the Dragon. A successful landing, he added, “will close the loop” on the ability of the United States to send crews into space.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company easily beat Boeing, which is not expected to launch its first crew until next year and will land in the southwestern United States. The flag will have one more flight after this: to the Moon, thanks to NASA’s Artemis program in the coming years.
Hurley and Behnken are bringing back a bright blue and purple dinosaur named Tremor. His young children chose the toy to accompany their parents on the historical mission.
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