SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule landed successfully splashing down in the Atlantic after five days docking at the ISS and marked history with completing the first ever privately built crew-capable spacecraft.
The SpaceX’s Demo-1 launched on March 2nd in the early morning and circling the Earth 18 times eventually came neighboring to the ISS, and later approached and docked with the new International Docking Adapter. The 400 pounds of supplies carried by the capsule was cleared by the ISS crew except the “anthropomorphic test device” known as Ripley stayed in her seat on board.
The capsule disengaged from the ISS and started the process of de-orbiting and landed as schedule at about 8:45 in the morning Eastern time.
The #CrewDragon completed its Demo-1 flight test this morning. The spacecraft successfully splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at 8:45 a.m. ET. It has been lifted out of the ocean and is now securely seated in @SpaceX's cradle aboard the Go Searcher Recovery ship. pic.twitter.com/w8nuZZBd1Q
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) March 8, 2019
SpaceX bacame the first company to complete this mission and even a big win for SpaceX as they did it before their rival Boeing who is also demonstrating one of its own. SpaceX Demo-2 will carry American astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley which will be a 14 day mission to the ISS.
A final report will soon be published by NASA after the debriefing and examining the craft and Ripley.
