NASA astronauts sent to space by SpaceX are back on Earth
The American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts returned to Earth. They were sent to ISS International Space Station by the SpaceX company in recent months.
The Dragon spacecraft and the American National Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who were sent to the International Space Station (ISS) with the Falcon 9 rocket launched by the US SpaceX company on May 30, have successfully returned to Earth.
19-HOUR JOURNEY FROM SPACE TO THE WORLD
Astronauts landed in the ocean (Gulf of Mexico just south of Pensacola on Florida’s Gulf coast) after a 19-hour cruise. Hurley’s and Behnken’s capsule touched the water at about 14:48 EDT (19:48 BST; 18:48 GMT). Astronauts were removed from the water by a recovery vessel after landing in the water. After this successful landing, the USA had the ability to send astronaut into orbit years later.
USA President Donald Trump hailed the return flight from twitter account. He tweeted “Thank you to all!”. “Great to have NASA Astronauts return to Earth after very successful two month mission.”
The touchdown marks the first crewed US water landing since the final landing of Apollo command module 45 years ago.
FIRST JOURNEY AFTER 2011
The Crew Dragon shuttle, carrying astronauts Hurley and Behnken, was launched into space on May 30 and reached ISS on May 31. This has been the first manned space expedition from the USA since NASA ended the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
Astronauts and cosmonauts at ISS were transported with Russian-made “Soyuz” shuttles, after NASA stopped Space shuttle program.
6 members of crews from different countries work alternately in the joint project of NASA. The countries are Russian Federal Space Agency, Japan Space Research Agency, European Space Agency and Canada Space Agency. As part of NASA’s “Commercial Supply Services” program, American companies Northrop Grumman are carrying supply materials to ISS with cargo shuttles called “Cygnus” and SpaceX with “Dragon”. On the other hand, in addition to SpaceX, Boeing is making test flights with “CST-100 Starliner” space shuttles to move personnel to ISS under the “Commercial Crew Development Program”.
