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posted by takyon on Sunday August 02 2020, @09:21PM   Printer-friendly

Demo-2 safely returns Bob and Doug to Earth to conclude historic start to new Commercial Era

NASA and SpaceX have successfully returned NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour. The return to Earth brought an end to the historic first private-company spaceflight of humans to Earth orbit and the commencement of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico came as expected at 2:48 pm EDT (18:48 UTC) off the southern coast of Alabama and southwest of Pensacola, Florida.

The splashdown culminated the historic Demo-2 flight which launched humans into orbit on the first-ever privately owned and operated rocket and spacecraft from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 30 May 2020.

The launch marked the first time since the final flight of space shuttle Atlantis in 2011 that humans launched into orbit from the United States, and this historic splashdown was the first landing of a spacecraft with humans on board in the Gulf of Mexico.

Moreso, it marked the first end of mission water landing for a U.S. human space flight since Apollo-Soyuz Test Program in July 1975 and the first global human spaceflight water landing since Soyuz 23 accidentally came down in Lake Tengiz on 16 October 1976.

Also at NASA, Space News, BBC, and Teslarati.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 02 2020, @09:33PM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 02 2020, @09:33PM (#1030446) Journal

    I know Musk has his detractors, but for this, we can overlook a helluva lot of faults. Murica is back in the Space Race!!

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday August 03 2020, @03:03AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday August 03 2020, @03:03AM (#1030563) Journal

    Falcon 9 + Crew Dragon and Falcon Heavy + Dragon XL are important, but will pale in comparison to human-rated Starship Super Heavy. That is a real game changer.

    Starship SN5 could do a hop within the next couple of weeks. Starship SN8 or later could fly up to 20 km within a couple of months. Orbital launch by the end of 2020 or early 2021.

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