SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked and opened, NASA astronauts moved to recovery

After Crew Dragon capsule successfully splashed down into Gulf of Mexico, two US astronauts were heartily welcomed back by NASA and X team. capsule landed after a 19-hour long journey following which two small boats were immediately sent to check if re were any toxic fumes around vehicle. boats worked to drag craft’s parachutes out of ocean, while GO Navigator rescue ship waited for a signal to hoist capsule aboard. 

After a series of checkouts, recovery ship GO Navigator, which is a much larger vessel with a rig that could haul craft itself out of ocean, closed in on Crew Dragon. two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley, were inside capsule for nearly two hours before y could disembark. 

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On reaching dock recovery team detected small amounts of nitrogen tetroxide, however, after ensuring safety of crew, hatch of capsule was opened. After brief hangup, team extracted two astronauts.

Behnken and Hurley took ir first steps into Earth’s gravity after spending 63 days in zero-G environment of . 

As Behnken was safely out of Crew Dragon capsule, he waved to cameras before heing to his medical checkup. Hurley followed shortly after and even flashed a thump’s up. After spending two months in microgravity, two astronauts are w onboard X’s GO Navigator recovery vessel and will soon take a helicopter flight back. 

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NASA’s X Demo-2 mission

Behnken and Hurley me history when y became first people to be launched into low-Earth orbit on a commercial craft built by X. splashdown marked first return of a commercially built and operated American craft carrying astronauts from station, wrapping up NASA’s X Demo-2 mission. 

mission, Demo-2, also marked first time NASA h launched astronauts from US soil in nine years. NASA astronauts were blasted off from Cape Canaveral on May 30. 

(Im: @JimBridenstine/Twitter) 

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