Post by Webster on Sept 19, 2021 0:34:29 GMT
The Guardian: ‘Heck of a ride’ - SpaceX’s historic amateur astronauts land safely in Atlantic
-Read more: www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/19/heck-of-a-ride-spacexs-historic-amateur-astronauts-land-safely-in-atlantic
Four space tourists ended their trailblazing trip to orbit on Saturday with a splashdown in the Atlantic off the Florida coast.
Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the ocean just before sunset, not far from where their chartered flight began three days earlier.
“On behalf of SpaceX, welcome back to planet Earth,” a SpaceX mission controller said after splashdown. “Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us.” “Thanks so much, SpaceX,” commander of the mission Jared Isaacman said upon landing. “It was a heck of a ride for us ... just getting started.”
The all-amateur crew was the first to circle the world without a professional astronaut. The billionaire who paid undisclosed millions for the trip and his three guests wanted to show that ordinary people could blast into orbit by themselves, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk took them on as the company’s first rocket-riding tourists.
SpaceX’s fully automated Dragon capsule reached an unusually high altitude of 585km (363 miles) after Wednesday night’s liftoff. Surpassing the International Space Station by 160km, the passengers savoured views of Earth through a big bubble-shaped window added to the top of the capsule. The four streaked back through the atmosphere early Saturday evening, the first space travellers to end their flight in the Atlantic since Apollo 9 in 1969. SpaceX’s two previous crew splashdowns – carrying astronauts for NASA – were in the Gulf of Mexico.
Within a few minutes, a pair of SpaceX boats pulled up alongside the bobbing capsule. It was hoisted on the recovery ship where the hatch was opened. The four were due to have medical checks before going to Kennedy Space Center by helicopter for a reunion with their families. This time, NASA was little more than an encouraging bystander, its only tie being the Kennedy Space Center launch pad once used for the Apollo moonshots and shuttle crews, but now leased by SpaceX.
Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the ocean just before sunset, not far from where their chartered flight began three days earlier.
“On behalf of SpaceX, welcome back to planet Earth,” a SpaceX mission controller said after splashdown. “Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us.” “Thanks so much, SpaceX,” commander of the mission Jared Isaacman said upon landing. “It was a heck of a ride for us ... just getting started.”
The all-amateur crew was the first to circle the world without a professional astronaut. The billionaire who paid undisclosed millions for the trip and his three guests wanted to show that ordinary people could blast into orbit by themselves, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk took them on as the company’s first rocket-riding tourists.
SpaceX’s fully automated Dragon capsule reached an unusually high altitude of 585km (363 miles) after Wednesday night’s liftoff. Surpassing the International Space Station by 160km, the passengers savoured views of Earth through a big bubble-shaped window added to the top of the capsule. The four streaked back through the atmosphere early Saturday evening, the first space travellers to end their flight in the Atlantic since Apollo 9 in 1969. SpaceX’s two previous crew splashdowns – carrying astronauts for NASA – were in the Gulf of Mexico.
Within a few minutes, a pair of SpaceX boats pulled up alongside the bobbing capsule. It was hoisted on the recovery ship where the hatch was opened. The four were due to have medical checks before going to Kennedy Space Center by helicopter for a reunion with their families. This time, NASA was little more than an encouraging bystander, its only tie being the Kennedy Space Center launch pad once used for the Apollo moonshots and shuttle crews, but now leased by SpaceX.