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SpaceX Crew Dragon makes 1st nighttime splashdown with US astronauts since Apollo era
A SpaceX Dragon capsule returned four astronauts to Earth early Sunday (May 2) in the first nighttime splashdown of a NASA crew since Apollo 8 in 1968.
A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts returned to Earth early Sunday (May 2) with an ocean splashdown off the Florida coast, successfully completing the company's first full-fledged crewed mission to the International Space Station.
The astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-1 mission for NASA splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City at 2:56 a.m. EDT (0656 GMT), with a recovery ship swiftly retrieving their Crew Dragon capsule from the sea. The spacecraft landed on target, marking the first nighttime splashdown of a U.S. crewed flight in 53 years. The last was NASA's Apollo 8 moon mission on Dec. 27, 1968.
"Dragon, on behalf of NASA and SpaceX teams, we welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX. For those of you enrolled in our frequent flier program, you've earned 68 million miles [109 million kilometers] on this voyage," a SpaceX crew operations and resources engineer told the Crew-1 astronauts after splashdown.
"It is good to be back on planet Earth," replied NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, commander of the Crew-1 mission. "We'll take those miles. Are they transferable?"
The capsule left the space station on late Saturday (May 1) after bad weather at the mission's main splashdown site twice delayed the crew's return.
Crew-1 marked SpaceX's second crewed flight to the space station and its first such flight to last for six months. The mission launched into orbit Nov. 15.
SpaceX's first astronaut mission, Demo-2 in May 2020, was a two-month test flight that carried two astronauts to the station. Although SpaceX's third crewed mission has launched already, today's return marked only the second crewed splashdown for the program. That third flight, called Crew-2, won't splash down until later this year.
