SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts return to Earth

[George II]

Source: CNN

The Crew Dragon capsule has splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico, finishing off the hardest part of today's journey.

And SpaceX personnel cheered loudly from inside mission control at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California headquarters. The GO Navigator rescue ship will move in to haul the Crew Dragon spacecraft out of the water and allow Behnken and Hurley to disembark.

More to come....

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/nasa-spacex-mission/index.html

[MizLibby]

1. Just Watch....

Idiot-in-chief will take credit for the whole thing.

[Backseat Driver]

2. Yay - we can still do it!

[Baclava]

3. Nice splashdown on the chutes! Gulf smooth as glass, sunshine, perfect weather, yay

[George II]

4. Took almost an hour after landing, but they're now out and in the medical center on the ship.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Boaters with Trump flag accused of 'endangering' SpaceX astronauts after splashdown

Published 4 mins ago on August 2, 2020By David Edwards



Supporters of President Donald Trump on Sunday were accused of jeopardizing astronauts’ return to Earth.

After SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule became the first American spacecraft to splashdown in 45 years, a boat flying the Trump flag was spotted within feet of the astronauts.

The boaters were quickly called out on social media for “interfering” with the mission.

Watch the video and read some of the responses below.

Link to tweet

More:
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/boaters-with-trump-flag-accused-of-endangering-spacex-astronauts-after-splashdown/

[Vinca]

6. Not a problem. CNN was giving credit to Barack Obama for the success of the mission since

he was the one with the public/private inspiration and enactment of the mission under his administration. If Dear Leader heard that I'm sure SpaceX will be history.

[oldsoftie]

7. I forgot how exciting these are! nt

[DeminPennswoods]

8. This is the first splashdown in decades

since the Space Shuttle came into service and landed like a regular aircraft.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Bookend watched this mission from initial launch and docking through to return and splash-down

in an Apollo-era throwback maneuver!

The one big difference between the Apollo missions and this was that the SpaceX booster Falcon 9 "came back home" and wasn't just discarded in the ocean -

Congrats to those guys and SpaceX. I know at the end, the NASA commentator emphasized about the ship being built by an American company, by Americans, that launched from American soil and landed in American waters (or something along that line).

(and yeah, the Russian thing is touch and go given the hope that politics don't interfere, which makes this first manned "private company" test flight all the more important)

[ffr]

10. They need these landings treated like a military operation, just like the launches.

Get the stupid away.

Next thing you'll know, there will be boats with drunk or extra stupid drivers who will run into the capsule or recovery ship out of pure idiocy. How many times have boat owners hit the throttle when they meant to back off?

I'd go so far as to place small armed Navy PT boats around the entire area and broadcast on the news for days leading up to the splashdown, that if you come within 2 miles of the rescue operations, you will be viewed as a thread and risk having your boat sunk. No tolerance!