4 astronauts return to Earth with splashdown
First long-duration flight complete for SpaceX
Four astronauts strapped into a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule safely splashed down into glasslike waters off the Florida coast early Sunday, wrapping up their six-month mission to the International Space Station.
After departing the night before, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Soichi Noguchi, and Shannon Walker were lowered into the Gulf of Mexico under the safety of four main parachutes at 2:57 a.m. ET. SpaceX boats stationed near Panama City swarmed the capsule, named Resilience, and prepped for recovery.
“On behalf of NASA and SpaceX teams, we welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” a crew operations and resources engineer, or CORE, said on the live webcast. “For those of you enrolled in our frequent-flyer program, you’ve earned 68 million miles on this voyage.”
“It is great to be back on planet Earth,” mission commander Hopkins said while waiting for recovery. “And we’ll take those miles. Are they transferable?”
The last chunk of those 68 million miles were packed with dramatic milestones as Crew Dragon slowed from 17,000 mph in orbit to just 16 mph at splashdown. The astronauts experienced 3 to 5 Gs, or gravitational force equivalents, during the descent, which is roughly what they felt during Falcon 9’s liftoff from Kennedy Space Center last November. Their Crew-1 mission marked the first long-duration flight for SpaceX and the company’s second with astronauts.
NASA said weather in the Gulf of Mexico was “nearly perfect” with winds of 3 mph and wave heights of less than 1 foot. Mission managers can select from several sites around Florida depending on weather conditions.
Shortly after splashdown, Resilience was hoisted onto a customized boat, and Crew-1’s astronauts were helped out of the side hatch.
“On behalf of Crew-1 and our families, we just want to say thank you,” Hopkins said. “We want to say thank you for this amazing vehicle Resilience. It’s amazing what can be accomplished when people come together.
“I’d like to say quite frankly that you all are changing the world,” he said as SpaceX employees in Hawthorne, California, cheered in the background.
After being taken to Panama City via helicopter, Crew-1 will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for a short quarantine period and more detailed medical checkouts. They will receive coronavirus vaccine doses, too.
Their recovery was mostly uneventful compared with the last time astronauts were pulled out of the gulf. After Demo-2 astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley splashed down in August, their Endeavour capsule was swarmed by civilian boaters trying to get a better view – a dangerous move because of leftover toxic propellants used by the spacecraft.
NASA and SpaceX said a combination of better security and a bigger Coast Guard presence prevented a similar if the delegates are lawyers and civil workers rather than politicians.
“The decision and conversation should come from working Puerto Ricans, not the politicians who have misused funds and have been historically corrupt,” Vázquez-Vera said in Spanish.
The argument against statehood for D.C. also comes down to politics. Republicans have called the bill a ploy to garner more Democratic votes in Congress.
The Democratic presidential nominee has captured more than 89% of the vote in the district since 2000, according to the Brookings Institute.
North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx and Tennessee Rep. James Comer, both Republicans, have voiced their concern over Democrats intentions with D.C. statehood.
“D.C. is a pawn being used by congressional Democrats to gain power,” Foxx said after Mayor Muriel Bowser said the district was “more than slightly Democratic.”
Meanwhile, in Guam, independence supporters argue statehood wouldn’t further Guam’s interests and economic needs.
Michael Lujan Bevacqua of the Kabesa and Bittot clans in Guam is a leader in the Guam independence movement, serving with Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero as co-chair for Independent Guåhan, a group dedicated to educating the island community about decolonization.
Their biggest argument for independence? Guam natives don’t speak for Guam; the U.S. does.
Lujan Bevacqua told USA TODAY independence would allow Guam to interact with its bordering Asian countries and participate in global conversations such as climate change and fish stocks.
To the U.S., Guam is just a “strategic military colony,” Lujan Bevacqua said. When Leon Guerrero discovered a military base was being built where ancient human remains were found, she said she was devastated.
In April, Telena Nelson, a senator in the Guam Legislature, launched an investigation into the construction of U.S. Marine Corps Camp Blaz in the village of Dededo in the northern part of the island, according to the Guardian.
Leon Guerrero said the incident showed independence is the best option for Guam. Leon Guerrero said no island or population is “too small” to govern themselves, and independence ensures Guam’s needs will be prioritized.
“As an unincorporated territory, we are not able to stop the desecration of our ancestors’ graves or protect our water from contamination as a result of military construction and activities on our island, which is a violation of both our human and indigenous rights,” Leon Guerrero said. “Independence is the only option that will give us the ability to protect our lands and waters on our terms and have a voice in all decisions that are made for Guam.” situation.
Back on the ISS, one Crew Dragon – Endeavour – remains attached. It ferried NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan’s Aki Hoshide, and Europe’s Thomas Pesquet to orbit just over a week ago. Their Crew-2 mission will also last about six months.
NASA pays SpaceX to fly astronauts as part of the Commercial Crew Program, which took shape to restore U.S.based human spaceflight after the end of the space shuttle.
The Space Coast, meanwhile, should see its next rocket launch on Tuesday. If schedules hold, a Falcon 9 rocket will fly 60 Starlink satellites from KSC at 3:01 p.m., marking the company’s 26th internet mission. The Space Force said weather should be 80% “go” for the liftoff.