Mission successful for SpaceX! Two American astronauts returned safely to Earth on Sunday aboard a SpaceX capsule after two months in space. This successful end of mission paves the way for regular manned flights with this new space vehicle for NASA.
An "exciting" return to Earth
In less than an hour, aboard SpaceX's Dragon, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley went from a speed of 28,000 km / h in orbit to a speed of 24 km / h at the time of the landing, four large parachutes having opened as expected after the scorching re-entry. They landed off Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico, a site chosen to avoid a tropical storm in the area.
“Welcome to Earth, and thank you for flying on SpaceX,” the flight director announced to the astronauts, who are fine and responded. “It was an honor and a privilege,” said Doug Hurley. President Donald Trump hailed the "exciting" return of SpaceX's manned capsule to Earth.
A "revolution" according to NASA
The successful round trip to the International Space Station (ISS) puts an end to the Russian monopoly on access to the ISS since the Americans parked their space shuttles in July 2011. NASA will use the Dragon capsule from the order of twice a year to send four astronauts at a time, including non-Americans, a Japanese and the European Thomas Pesquet being planned for the next missions.
NASA sees it as a "revolution", because SpaceX will give the United States back access to space, less expensive than its previous programs. For three billion granted since 2011 under a fixed price contract, SpaceX has fully developed a new space taxi and promised six round trips to the ISS. Previously, the space agency ordered a specific vehicle from industry giants, and assumed all budget overruns.
In doing so, the ex-start-up beat Boeing, whose Starliner capsule, developed for the same purpose, missed an empty test flight last year and won't be ready until 2021 at the earliest.