Monday, March 11, 2019

SpaceX Successfully Returns Crew Dragon To Earth

Hawthorne-based SpaceX successfully completed its first test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft on Friday, marking the first successful NASA Commercial Crew Flight Test, and moving the company towards delivering astronauts into space--a move which may return the capability of launching astronauts into space back to U.S. soil. The Crew Dragon splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at 8:45 a.m. EST on Friday, landing approximately 230 miles off the coast of Cape Canaveral, after departing from the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon had been docked at the ISS for five days. The Demonstration Mission-1 (Demo-1) mission carried only a manikin named "Ripley" which included sensors to monitor the impact of the launch and return on a human; NASA says its is now plannning out another test, Demo-2, an actual crewed test flight, expected to carry two NASA astronauts--Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley--into space, sometime this summer.