SpaceX safely returned its four astronauts to Earth.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CAPE CANAVERAL – SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday (2/5). Dragon Capsule was deployed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida before 03.00 am local time.
This ended the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company. It was a quick return trip, which lasted only 6.5 hours.
Reporting from Japan TodayOn Sunday (2/5), the astronauts, three Americans and one Japanese, flew back in the same capsule – named Resilience – where they launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in November.
“We welcome you back to planet Earth and thank you for flying SpaceX,” Mission Control Space X broadcasts over the radio moments after the spark. “For those of you who are enrolled in our frequent flyer program, you have earned 68 million on this trip.”
“We’re going to go that far,” said spacecraft commander Mike Hopkins.
“Can they be moved?” SpaceX replied that astronauts should check with the company’s marketing department.
Within half an hour of splashing, the charred capsule – resembling a giant roasted marshmallow – had been lifted onto the recovery vessel. Hopkins was the first to come out, doing a bit of a dance as he popped out under intense spotlights.
“It’s amazing what can be achieved when people get together,” he told flight controllers SpaceX at corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
“To be honest, you are all changing the world. It feels good to be back, ”he said again.
The 167-day mission is the longest for a crew capsule launch from the United States (US). The previous record of 84 days was set by NASA’s last Skylab station astronaut in 1974.
The demolition of Saturday night (1/5) left seven people on the space station, four of whom arrived a week ago via SpaceX. “Earthbound!” NASA astronaut Victor Glover, the capsule pilot, tweeted after leaving the station.
Hopkins and Glover – along with Shannon Walker from NASA and Soichi Noguchi from Japan – were supposed to return to Earth last Wednesday, but high offshore winds forced SpaceX to miss a pair of daytime landing attempts. The manager turns to a rare spark in the dark, to take advantage of the calm weather.
SpaceX has been training to come home at night, just in case, and even found its newest station cargo capsule from the Gulf of Mexico in the dark. Infrared cameras track the capsule as it re-enters the atmosphere. It resembled a bright star streaking across the night sky.
The four main parachutes can be seen spreading out just before the splash, which is also visible in infrared. Even though it’s still early morning, the family lifeguard is in full force to enforce an 11 mile (18 kilometer) guard zone around the bobbing Dragon Capsule. After finishing with a health check on the ship, the astronauts plan to board a helicopter for a short flight to the beach, then board a direct plane to Houston for a reunion with their families.
Their capsule, Resilience, will return to Cape Canaveral for repairs for SpaceX’s first private crew mission in September. The docking mechanism of the space station will be removed and new dome windows snap into place.
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