SpaceX Dragon capsule returns to Earth in fireball in most dramatic moment of pioneering journey
Successful splashdown changed how Nasa sends astronauts into space
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Your support makes all the difference.SpaceX’s brand new crew capsule has splashed down on Earth – and might have changed the future of space travel as it did.
It dropped into the Atlantic Ocean, right on time, bringing an end to a mission that went entirely successfully and paves the way for the capsule to carry astronauts to space.
The Dragon capsule pulled away from the orbiting lab early Friday, a test dummy named Ripley its lone occupant. It’s aiming for a morning splashdown in the Atlantic off Florida’s coast, the final hurdle of the six-day test flight. Saturday’s launch and Sunday’s docking were spot on.
NASA astronauts have been stuck riding Russian rockets since space shuttles retired eight years ago. NASA is counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start launching astronauts this year. SpaceX is aiming for summer.
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Now onto the burn – probably the most intense bit of today, and perhaps the most intense bit of the entire event. Once that happens, we'll have about three quarters of an hour until it drops into the ocean.
There's nobody on board the capsule this time around – apart from a model of a human, loaded with sensors and called Ripley – but if you were riding in the capsule, this would probably be the most stressful bit. It's about to start its de-orbit: moving from the relative tranquility of floating around in orbit and into the very fast, very hot plunge into the ground.
Here's the GO Searcher boat, currently floating in the ocean, waiting and ready to pick up the capsule.
The de-orbit burn is ongoing. If you want to take a break, now's the time: it's a very complicated process, involving all sorts of intense calculations, but the point is really just to slowly move the capsule back towards the Earth. All the fun starts in 10 or 15 minutes when the plunge really gets going.
Here's the view from a plane, which is watching the sky as the capsule approaches.
And here's some nice pictures of Go Searcher, which will be picking up the capsule. One day soon, it will also be picking up astronauts.
The underneath includes medical quarters, so the astronauts can be checked out. And the bit at the back is a helipad, in case the astronauts need to be brought back in a rush. (It's going to take roughly a day for the capsule to be brought back on the boat, though it will be closer to land when it has astronauts on board.)
Here's some – mostly very black – images taken from the Dragon capsule itself, while it does its de-orbit burn. Obviously you can't actually see very much, since it's very dark out there.
And some more pictures of Go Searcher. That vertical bit extending up the back is the bit that will be able to pick up the Crew Dragon capsule and put it on the boat.
It will take about an hour to get the capsule out of the water, onto the boat, and ready to go. That would be the time that – if there were astronauts on board – they would be getting checked over and chatted to by the recovery teams.
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