"Welcome to Earth". The two American astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) landed Sunday, August 2 in the Gulf of Mexico aboard a SpaceX capsule, crowning the success of this first demonstration mission of the space company for NASA.

"Welcome to Earth, and thank you for flying on SpaceX," flight director told astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley who responded immediately. The Dragon capsule landed off Pensacola, Florida as scheduled at 2:48 p.m. local time, according to live footage, after having safely passed through Earth's atmosphere. Four large parachutes slowed the descent of the capsule, which must be recovered quickly by a SpaceX ship.

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley had joined the ISS two months earlier aboard this new capsule manufactured by the private American company SpaceX created by billionaire Elon Musk, under contract with NASA.

The manned flight, whose departure had already been postponed due to changing weather, was also the first launched from the United States since 2011, when the space shuttles were shut down. Americans have since been traveling on Russian rockets.

Thomas Pesquet will travel with SpaceX in the spring

NASA tasked SpaceX, which had been delivering cargo to the ISS since 2012, to develop a new space taxi.  

For three billion dollars, granted since 2011 as part of a fixed price contract, SpaceX has promised NASA six round trips to the ISS, with four astronauts on board.

Frenchman Thomas Pesquet said this week that he would in turn travel aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon for his second mission to the ISS in spring 2021.

With AFP

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