NASA astronauts splash down after journey home aboard SpaceX capsule

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NASA astronauts splash down after journey home aboard SpaceX capsule

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Key points –

1. U.S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who flew to the International Space Station in SpaceX's new Crew Dragon, splashed down in the capsule in the Gulf of Mexico on August 2 after a two-month voyage that was NASA's first crewed mission from home soil in nine years.
2. NASA, aiming to galvanize a commercial space marketplace, awarded nearly $8 billion to SpaceX and Boeing Co collectively in 2014 to develop dueling space capsules, experimenting with a contract model that allows the space agency to buy astronaut seats from the two companies.

Important details – 

1. Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley undocked from the station on Saturday (August 1) and returned home to land in the waves off Florida's Pensacola coast on schedule at 2:48 p.m. ET following a 21-hour overnight journey aboard Crew Dragon “Endeavor.”
2. The successful splashdown was a final key test of whether Elon Musk's spacecraft can transport astronauts to and from orbit a feat no private company has accomplished before.
3. For the return sequence, on-board thrusters and two sets of parachutes worked autonomously to slow the acorn-shaped capsule, bringing Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley's speed of 17,500 miles per hour in orbit down to 350 mph upon atmospheric reentry, and eventually 15 mph at splashdown.
4. During re-entry to Earth's atmosphere, the capsule's outer shell withstood temperatures as high as 3,500 Fahrenheit while Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley, wearing SpaceX's white flight suits strapped inside the cabin, experienced 85 Fahrenheit.
5. Billionaire entrepreneur Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to send humans to orbit with the launch of Mr.Behnken and Mr. Hurley, who have spent more than two months on the space station.
6. The landmark mission, launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on May 31, marked the first time the U.S. space agency launched humans from American soil since its shuttle program retired in 2011.
7. Since then the US has relied on Russia's space program to launch its astronauts to the space station.
8. Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley's homecoming was also the first crewed splashdown in an American capsule in 45 years.

Greetings from sons – 

1. The pair undocked from the space station late on Saturday and began gradually decreasing their orbital altitude overnight, awaking Sunday morning to recorded wake-up calls from their sons.
2. NASA officials have said Crew Dragon, a pod with seven astronaut seats, was in a “very healthy” condition while docked at the space station, where astronauts conducted tests and monitored how the spacecraft performs in space. 

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