SpaceX, owned by the American billionaire Elon Musk, has proven that the era of human space travel is approaching when its Crow Dragon - which the returning astronauts called "Resilience" - returns. Steadfastness) - to Earth successfully, to complete the longest journey to transport people through space - back and forth - in the history of the United States of America.

#ICYMI: @SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi took a six-and-a-half hour ride back to Earth overnight on the #CrewDragon Resilience.

pic.twitter.com/EXhpBb7CKj

- International Space Station (@SpaceStation) May 2, 2021

A fiery return journey

The flight lasted 6 and a half hours, and was scheduled to return last Wednesday, but was postponed for two days due to bad weather conditions at the landing site.

The "Crow Dragon" vehicle was designed to withstand high temperatures on its surface and protect the astronauts inside, as the spacecraft split the Earth's sky like a flaming meteor after the surrounding air temperature reached 1926 degrees Celsius when it was in contact with the Earth's atmosphere, in a mythical scene comparable to space movies and fantasy Scientific.

The International Space Station observed the scene of the spacecraft entering the atmosphere, looking like a burning meteor;

The French astronaut Thomas Pescet - who arrived a few days ago at the station as part of the Crew 2 mission - posted on his Twitter account the image of the vehicle, which looks like a thin line of fire cuts through the dark sky of Earth.

"I cannot believe that after 6 hours have passed since we closed the nozzle to our friends, I see them in this meteor that cuts through the night sky. It is a scene that I will remember all my life," he commented.

The vehicle breaks the dark sky like a burning meteor due to the friction of its surface with the atmosphere (social networking sites)

The first water landing since 1968

At a height of several kilometers above the ocean, 4 parachutes from the spacecraft opened to slow down its descent before gently settling on the surface of the water in the Gulf of Mexico at 3 a.m. ET (7 a.m. UTC), marking the first water landing of a NASA spacecraft since 1968. .

The thermal cameras in the NASA pick-up ship and the transport plane - affiliated with "NASA" - monitored the scene of the landing of the vehicle and its parachutes on the surface of the water, and the spacecraft was successfully recovered and the astronauts removed from it.

Night cameras detect the opening of the four parachutes before descending on the water surface (NASA)

Vehicle successfully recovered

As soon as the spacecraft landed on the surface of the water in the Gulf of Mexico, a special ship supported by speed boats belonging to NASA recovered the craft and placed it on the deck of the ship before the support team opened the spacecraft to get the astronauts out safely: Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins of the US Space Agency. NASA and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA.

NASA Special Support Team retrieves the capsule from the open sea after landing (Flickr)

Resilience vehicle

The "SpaceX" company had carried the four astronauts within the "Crew 1" mission on November 15, 2020, and the astronauts called the vehicle "steadfast";

A tribute to their families and colleagues and an affirmation of the dedication shown by the teams participating in the mission and that there is no limit to what humans can achieve when they collaborate together.

The spacecraft has remained welded to one of the station's docking platforms since then, before detaching from it to bring the astronauts back to Earth.

A 3D drawing of the International Space Station showing the coupled transport vehicles of various missions (social media)

NASA and SpaceX partnership

The return of the astronauts of the mission (Crew 1) marks the completion of the first mission of rotating astronauts on the International Space Station in the framework of the partnership between "NASA" and "SpaceX" as part of the commercial mission program to develop and operate human transport systems in space.

In this way, the company "SpaceX" proves its ability to carry out shifts of astronauts on the International Space Station after spending their entire period on board.

NASA has contracted with SpaceX for five more round-trip flights.

The "SpaceX" company had transported a team of astronauts within the "Crew 2" mission on Friday 23 April on board the "Crew Dragon 2" capsule, and after its arrival, the International Space Station became crowded with 11 astronauts, and this continued. For 4 days, before the four astronauts of the "Crew 1" mission leave the station, returning to Earth.

11 astronauts together in the International Spacecraft in a rare group photo (social media)

Hundreds of scientific experiments

During the six months that the four astronauts spent on the "Crew 1" mission on board the International Space Station while orbiting the Earth;

The four astronauts conducted hundreds of scientific and technological experiments, and carried out several rounds of spacewalks, as well as transporting the "Crow Dragon" vehicle from the docking platform of the International Station to another platform.

Hours before their return, and on their last day on board the station, they celebrated Glover's 45th birthday with the sounds of music in a fun atmosphere conveyed by the photos they posted on the communication sites.