SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean Thursday, returning to Earth after a successful trip to the International Space Station.
All parachute deployments for the Crew Dragon’s atmosphere re-entry went according to plan. A video of the splashdown was shared by the official NASA Commercial Crew Program twitter account.
Successful splashdown of the #CrewDragon right on time at 8:45 a.m. ET. pic.twitter.com/0qHhHzD4Js
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) March 8, 2019
The “Demo-1” mission was a test run for Crew Dragon, the first commercially built and operated spacecraft designed for humans to launch from U.S. soil in more than 11 years.
The 16-foot-tall Crew Dragon capsule is outfitted for a seven-person crew, but the Demo-1 mission carried only a test dummy nicknamed “Ripley” after character from the science fiction movie “Alien.” SpaceX said the dummy is wearing a spacesuit embedded with sensors around its head, neck, and spine to gather data on the conditions to be experienced by human passengers.
NASA and SpaceX wear readying the capsule for a crewed test flight scheduled for later this year.
The first crewed SpaceX test flight to the ISS, with astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board, could blast off as early as July.