Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox
Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter
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.
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
SpaceX Dragon heads back to earth after ISS mission
That recovery work is still ongoing. And will be for days and weeks yet, as SpaceX studies the data and objects that have come back to analyse the flight.
This is "Demo-1". But things won't be over until "Demo-2", when two astronauts will fly in the capsule, and allow the spacecraft to be fully certified for future missions.
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine is on TV, praising the achievement and the work of Nasa getting all of this done. "This really is an American achievement that spans many generations of Nasa administrators."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies