NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken returned to Earth on Sunday afternoon after two months aboard the International Space Station. The duo undocked from the station Saturday night and began their journey back home, eventually splashing down in dramatic fashion off the coast of Florida right on schedule. They were met by a recovery ship with recently quarantined and coronavirus-tested staff.
The water landing caps what's been a successful test run for NASA and SpaceX, who teamed up to usher in a new era of American spaceflight. Hurley and Behnken were traveling in SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour, the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit. The smooth operation means another SpaceX crew launch will go ahead as early as next month, and tourist flights into orbit could begin next year, The Associated Press reports. Watch the final stages of the return journey below. Tim O'Donnell
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What is Starmer's £33m plan to smash 'vile' Channel migration gangs?Today's Big Question PM lays out plan to tackle migration gangs like international terrorism, with cooperation across countries and enhanced police powers
-
Quirky hot cross buns to try this EasterThe Week Recommends Creative, flavourful twists on the classic Easter bake, from tiramisu and stem ginger to a cheesy sharing-size treat
-
What should you be stockpiling for 'World War Three'?In the Spotlight Britons advised to prepare after the EU tells its citizens to have an emergency kit just in case
-
Dark energy may not doom the universe, data suggestsSpeed Read The dark energy pushing the universe apart appears to be weakening
-
Pharaoh's tomb discovered for first time in 100 yearsSpeed Read This is the first burial chamber of a pharaoh unearthed since Tutankhamun in 1922
-
Scientists report optimal method to boil an eggSpeed Read It takes two temperatures of water to achieve and no fancy gadgets
-
Europe records big leap in renewable energySpeed Read Solar power overtook coal for the first time
-
Blue Origin conducts 1st test flight of massive rocketSpeed Read The Jeff Bezos-founded space company conducted a mostly successful test flight of its 320-foot-tall New Glenn rocket
-
US won its war on 'murder hornets,' officials saySpeed Read The announcement comes five years after the hornets were first spotted in the US
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was rightSpeed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular storiesSpeed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
