Space X’s Crew Dragon has landed on earth following a two-month successful voyage.

Space X’s Crew Dragon has landed on earth following a two-month successful voyage.

 Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley left the station on Saturday and landed I the capsule this evening just off the coast of Pensacola, western Florida, completing NASA’s first crewed mission from the US soil in nine years.

The successful landing marks Elon Musk’s spacecraft’s ability to transport astronauts to and from orbit, something no private company has ever completed previously, and also it is the first astronaut ocean landing in 45 years. After touching down SpaceX mission control said “On behalf of the SpaceX and NASA teams, welcome back to planet Earth. Thanks for flying SpaceX.”

The dragon was lifted onto a recovery vessel with Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley later unstrapped from their seats, after final checks for any dangerous remnant vapors still surrounding the capsule. They made history together on May 30 by becoming the first people to launch into low-Earth orbit on a commercial spacecraft. For the return sequence, onboard thrusters and two sets of parachutes worked to slow the capsule and bring its speed from 17, 500 mph in orbit down to 350mph upon atmospheric re-entry and eventually 15mph at splashdown.

During the process, the capsule’s outer shell withstood temperatures as high as 3, 500ᵒF ( 1926ᵒC)  causing it to turn black. However, inside Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley experienced temperatures of around 30 ᵒC while the re-entry also caused a temporary communications blackout.