American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and their Japanese colleague Soichi Noguchi were on board. The landing was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but due to unfavorable weather forecast was postponed until Saturday at the earliest and then to the deadline on Saturday night.
According to the AP, the US space agency concluded the conclusion of a mission called Crew-1, the first sea landing in the dark since the Apollo 8 mission in late 1968. Crew Dragon capsules parachuted to the surface exactly as planned at 2:57 local time . The return flight from the ISS took six and a half hours, after which the capsule was quickly lifted from the sea aboard the ship.
“Welcome back to planet Earth and thank you for flying with SpaceX. For those of you who are members of our loyalty program, you have just accumulated 68 million miles this way, ”joked the SpaceX control center shortly after landing. The cabin with the four astronauts was then quickly lifted from the sea aboard the prepared ship, and shortly afterwards the crew disembarked.
“It’s great what people can achieve when people come together,” said astronaut Hopkins after returning from orbit. SpaceX adviser Hans Koenigsmann praised the smooth running of the mission, saying “it looked like a pit stop in a pits than anything else.”
In addition to the circumstances of landing after the return flight, the Crew-1 mission was exceptional in terms of length, according to the AP. It lasted 167 days, a record for crews starting from the United States. Previously, it was the longest 84-day mission to the 1974 Skylab space station.
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Seven people remained on the ISS after the departure of Hopkins and others, including four who arrived there a week ago in another capsule supplied by SpaceX.
After returning from orbit, technicians at Cape Dragon Resilience will begin preparing the Crew Dragon Resilience for the next manned flight scheduled for September as part of Inspiration 4. On this occasion, a civilian crew is to take off in the SpaceX for the first time.
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