The private spacecraft Crew Dragon has landed safely in the Gulf of Mexico after two months in space.
Two astronauts, who two months ago were launched with the private space company SpaceX to the International Space Station, have this evening Danish time landed in their space capsule in the Gulf of Mexico.
It shows TV pictures from the American space agency Nasa .
The space capsule Crew Dragon hit the sea at 20.48 Danish time (14.48 local time).
Immediately after, the two astronauts Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley indicated that they were well and ready to be picked up by SpaceX’s speedboats.
The two American astronauts reached 1,024 times around the Earth on their journey.
First manned mission from the United States in nine years
On Twitter, Nasa confirms the successful landing at sea, which is the first with American astronauts in 45 years.
“Thanks for flying @SpaceX.”
? Current Location: Planet Earth
A 2:48pm ET, @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug splashed down, marking the first splashdown of an American crew spacecraft in 45 years. #LaunchAmerica pic.twitter.com/zO3KlNwxU3
— NASA (@NASA) August 2, 2020
Crew Dragon was launched on May 30 by the American company SpaceX, which is behind entrepreneur and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
The company is the first private company to send astronauts into space, which has happened in collaboration with Nasa .
The launch in May was also the first time since 2011 that a spacecraft with astronauts was launched into space from American soil.
President Trump: Great to see
On Twitter, US President Donald Trump welcomes the two astronauts back to Earth.
– Great to see Nasa astronauts return to Earth after a very successful and two month long mission. Thanks to everyone, he writes.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1289997897723863040
In the long run, Elon Musk and SpaceX also have a goal of opening up space tourism to ordinary people.
SpaceX has developed both rocket, space capsule and spacesuit for mission.
The capsule, Crew Dragon, is designed to carry up to seven astronauts.
The rocket, the Falcon 9, which carried the vessel into space, is partly a recycled rocket, which is therefore much cheaper to operate than previous rockets.
Source: dr.dk
