SpaceX Mission to ISS Returns Safely

2 NASA Astronauts Safely Return to Earth

Source:  NASA - Crew Dragon onboard SpaceX Rescue Ship

SpaceX Founder Elon Musk's Magnificent Accomplishment

For the 2 brave astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who took the ride of their lives on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and hurtled into space onboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS in May, it is now mission accomplished. They made it safely back to Earth today, having accomplished the first private space mission with US astronauts launched from the US into space for NASA.  They've made history. Perhaps NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine put it best calling the mission "the next era in human spaceflight", as NASA will be purchasing space rides from SpaceX.  For SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, this is a huge accomplishment that he says he wasn't sure he could do when he founded SpaceX in 2002.  He kept on perfecting his rocket science technology and he did it with a great victory today.

SpaceX Victories

For Elon Musk and his SpaceX team, the accomplishments of the Crew Dragon mission are a series of first.  They are the first private company to carry US astronauts back and forth to space and retrieve them in the planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.  That's the first splashdown landing for NASA in 45 years.   Crew Dragon survived a blistering descent and reentry into the Earth's atmosphere at temperatures of 3500 degrees F and speeds of 17,500 mph.  Then it accomplished a daring parachute drop of the capsule hurtling through the Earth's atmosphere and a final big landing in the form of a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola, where a SpaceX vessel retrieved them.  All of the technology worked.  NASA no longer has to rely on Russia for launches to the ISS.  SpaceX is now a new partner for space rides as NASA and SpaceX soar into space..