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

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

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

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

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

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

READ: Crew Dragon Splashdown In Gulf Of Mexico Successful, First Crew Recovery At Sea Since 1975

NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission

Behnken and Hurley made history when they became the first people to be launched into low-Earth orbit on a commercial spacecraft built by SpaceX. The splashdown marked the first return of a commercially built and operated American spacecraft carrying astronauts from the space station, wrapping up NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission. 

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

(Image: @JimBridenstine/Twitter) 

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READ: SpaceX Crew Dragon Departs From Space Station, Astronauts Begin 19-hr Journey To Earth