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The capsule landed in the water of the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City in Florida. This is the first landing of the American crew in the dark of day since the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon. Several boats took 3 hours ago. capsule and astronauts who landed on time in the morning (9 am 56 min.
The crew reported feeling good, NASA said.
Crew Dragon left TKS on Sunday at 3 pm 35 min. Lithuanian time. The trip to Earth took about an hour and a half.
Three Americans, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as Japan’s Soichi Noguchi flew to TKS in the same Crew Dragon Resilience manned spacecraft last November. This was Elon Musko’s second astronaut flight.
The 167-day mission was the longest astronaut flight from the United States. The previous 84-day record, set in 1974, belongs to the last crew of NASA’s first Skylab space station.
There are now seven astronauts left at TKS, four of whom flew in another SpaceX last week.
“Down to earth! – V.Gloveris wrote on Twitter after leaving TKS.” One step closer to family and home!
The crew was due to return to Earth on Wednesday, but due to high winds, SpaceX delayed their return. It was finally decided to take advantage of the calm weather and bring the astronauts back at night.
SpaceX was preparing thoroughly for its overnight return, including taking its last cargo capsule, which also landed in the Gulf of Mexico, during the dark hours of the day.
The return of Crew Dragon Resilience to the atmosphere was monitored by infrared cameras. It was like a bright star flying in the sky.
He could also see the capsule’s four main parachutes deploying just before landing in the water.
Apollo 8, the first NASA-piloted mission to the moon in which the spacecraft orbited Earth’s satellite, ended on December 27, 1968, before a dawn landing in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. Eight years later, in the dark, a Soviet capsule with two astronauts returned to Earth. Overwhelmed by blizzards, she landed on a partially frozen lake in Kazakhstan.
The next flight of the SpaceX astronauts is scheduled for October. The company’s spacecraft eliminated nearly a decade of American dependence on Russian Soyuz missiles to bring American astronauts to TKS in 2011 following the end of the reusable space shuttle program.
