SpaceX splashdown: Four astronauts to return from record-breaking mission
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule soared back from outer space and made a parachute landing in the Gulf of Mexico, returning four astronauts from a record-setting mission to the International Space Station.
Posted: May 3, 2021 2:46 PM
Posted By: CNN
Four astronauts are on their way home from the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, ending their five-month mission to the orbiting laboratory. The astronauts set a record for the longest time in space by a crew that launched aboard an American-built spacecraft.
On Saturday evening, the crew climbed aboard their spacecraft, which had remained fixed to the space station's docking ports since the astronauts arrived in November. They undocked from the ISS at 8:37 pm ET, and will spend the night aboard their capsule as it freeflies through orbit. The spacecraft fire up its on-board engines to start safely descending back into the Earth's thick atmosphere, and it'll use a series of parachutes to slow its decent before splashing down off the coast Florida Sunday morning around 2:57 am ET.