SPACE X

Mission accomplished

The SpaceX capsule that took two US astronauts to the International Space Station in late May returned to Earth on Sunday afternoon, 2, after just over two months in orbit. The night journey back with crew members Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley lasted 21 hours and the landing took place at 3:49 pm (GMT) on the Gulf of Mexico(image above), off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
On May 30, the Falcon 9 rocket left American soil on time at 4:22 pm and arrived at the station the next day at 11:16 am. After launch, the astronauts took a 19-hour journey aboard the Crew Dragon capsule until reaching their destination.
Along with NASA, SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk, made history: for the first time since 2011, the space agency carried out a manned mission from the United States.
It was also the first time that a private company launched astronauts into orbit - until then, only government spacecraft reached such heights. Furthermore, it was a symbolic flight: the rocket left the same launch pad as the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which lifted the Apollo 11 crew to the moon. 
"On behalf of the SpaceX and Nasa teams, welcome back to planet Earth. Thank you for flying SpaceX," said SpaceX mission control during the crash. For the return sequence, onboard thrusters and two sets of parachutes worked autonomously to reduce the speed of the capsule. During reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, the outer shell of the capsule withstood temperatures of up to 1,926ºC, while Behnken and Hurley, wearing white SpaceX flight suits tied inside the cabin, experienced 29ºC. The crew will spend up to an hour floating inside the capsule before SpaceX and NASA teams retrieve them for a helicopter trip on land. There, the pair will undergo medical examinations before a flight to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Mundophone