The two American astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley returned to Earth on Sunday aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. A successful end of mission which paves the way for regular manned flights with this new space vehicle for NASA.
In less than an hour, the two men went from a speed of 28,000 km / h in orbit to a speed of 24 km / h at the time of the landing, four large parachutes having opened as expected after the scorching. atmospheric re-entry. They landed off Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico, a site chosen to avoid a tropical storm in the area.
The successful round trip to the International Space Station (ISS) ends the Russian monopoly on access to the ISS since the Americans parked their space shuttles in July 2011. NASA will use the capsule of the ISS. 'order twice a year to send four astronauts at a time, including non-Americans, a Japanese and European Thomas Pesquet being scheduled for the next missions.
Upon its return, the Dragon Crew capsule will be transported to a SpaceX site in Florida for a six-week inspection to verify that it can once again serve as a space taxi.
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