Four astronauts return from space aboard Spacex capsule
The capsule carrying four astronauts lands ater a six-and-a-half-hour flight from the ISS; it is the first nightime splashdown for Nasa since the crew of Apollo 8 arrived in the Pacific Ocean on Dec.27, 1968
A Spacex Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts back to Earth splashed down off Florida early on Sunday in Nasa’s first nightime ocean landing in more than 50 years.
The crew reported they were feeling well ater their arrival back on Earth following a nearly six-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Nasa said.
The capsule splashed down at 2:56 am (0656 GMT) in the dark in the Gulf of Mexico off Panama City ater a six-and-a-half-hour flight from the ISS, night-vision images relayed by Nasa’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircrat showed.
Teams aboard the Go Navigator recovery ship retrieved the capsule and hoisted it onto the deck about half an hour later. It was the first nightime splashdown for Nasa since the crew of Apollo 8 arrived in the Pacific Ocean on December 27, 1968.
Commander Michael Hopkins was the first to emerge ater the hatch was opened, doing a litle jig as he set foot on deck, followed shortly ater by fellow Nasa astronaut Victor Glover.
“On behalf of Crew-1 and our families, we just want to say thank you ... It’s amazing what can be accomplished when people come together. Y’all are changing the world. Congratulations. It’s great to be back,” Hopkins said in a Nasa tweet.
Nasa astronaut Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi were the other two aboard.
“Welcome home Victor, Michael, Shannon, and Soichi, and congratulations to the teams at Nasa and Spacex who worked so hard to ensure their safe and successful splashdown,” said new Nasa administrator Bill Nelson.
“We’ve accomplished another incredible spaceflight for America and our commercial and international partners. Safe, reliable transportation to the International Space Station is exactly the vision that Nasa had when the agency embarked on the commercial crew programme.”
The four astronauts went to space last November as the crew on the first fully operational mission to the ISS aboard a vehicle made by Elon Musk’s Spacex, which has become Nasa’s favoured commercial transportation partner.
They travelled 114.6 million kilometres during their 168 days in orbit (including 167 days aboard the space station), Nasa said.
Ater medical checks, the four astronauts will be flown by helicopter to Pensacola to board a plane for Houston to be reunited with their friends and family, Nasa said.
“The reports are all four crew members are in great shape and in great spirits and doing really well,” Nasa chief flight director Holly Ridings said at a post-spashdown news briefing.
“Really just a great day. It’s not very oten you get to wake up on the Space Station and go to sleep in Houston,” she said.
Seven astronauts remained on the ISS including a new crew of four who arrived on a different Spacex crat last week.
“Thanks for your hospitality,” Hopkins said earlier as the capsule undocked from the space station for its return journey. “We’ll see you back on Earth.”
Even the Milky Way seems too small to keep the egos of tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and
Elon Musk from colliding as they vie to conquer space. Musk aimed low with a recent tweet saying “can’t get it up (to orbit)” in response to a post about Bezos-founded space company Blue Origin protesting Nasa’s choice of Musk’s Spacex team to build a module that will land the next US astronauts on the moon.
“This is more than just a batle for space,” said Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives. “There is some ego at play as well; this has become even more personal.”
The tech entrepreneurs have each channeled some of their vast fortunes into private space exploration companies since early this century.
Bezos, 57, is founder of Blue Origin as well as of e-commerce colossus Amazon. Forbes ranks him the richest person on this planet, worth some $202 billion.
Musk, the colorful 49-year-old founder of Tesla and Spacex as well as other companies, including one working to mesh human brains with computers, is in third place with a worth of $173 billion, according to the ranking.