Two American astronauts, en route to Earth aboard the SpaceX capsule, landed on Sunday, in a high-risk operation in the Gulf of Mexico after two months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX's manned capsule parachutes opened after atmospheric reentry.
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" It's the big day, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley return to Earth, " tweeted Nasa, which has not landed astronauts since 1975 and has been dependent for nearly ten years on the Russians to transport them to the laboratory orbital. The American space agency broadcast this impressive arrival live.
A success of this mission allows the United States to regain their spatial autonomy, while delegating to a private company the transport to the ISS to concentrate on other exploration missions, notably on the Moon or on Mars. .
The two men bade farewell to their three colleagues on the ISS, about 400 km from Earth, on Saturday and left the station without a hitch around 11:34 GMT.
After an uneventful night, they were given the green light on Sunday to land as scheduled off the town of Pensacola, in northern Florida, at around 6:48 p.m. GMT.
The US space agency has decided to maintain their trip despite tropical storm Isaias, which brings strong winds and heavy rain to the east coast of Florida. However, it gave up on the first site envisaged, located on the more exposed Atlantic coast.
Parachutes
A few hours from the finish, SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, a company of eccentric entrepreneur Elon Musk, was traveling at more than 28,000 km / h.
At 13:51 (17:51 GMT), she was to begin a series of delicate maneuvers, starting with the unloading of unnecessary equipment for the end of the trip. After placing itself on the right path, it entered the atmosphere at 2:32 p.m. (6:32 p.m.). Its heat shield must have withstood temperatures of around 1,900 degrees.
The first parachutes were to deploy at an altitude of about 4.5 km to slow its fall and the main parachutes were scheduled to open 1.8 km from Earth.
A NASA ship, GO Navigator, has been deployed to pick up the crew who will immediately undergo medical examinations before being brought back to land.
The Dragon Crew capsule will be transported to a SpaceX site in Florida for a six-week inspection to verify that it can again serve as a space taxi.
Last year, she completed this mission empty and without incident. If everything is repeated identically, SpaceX, which has been transporting cargo to the ISS since 2012, will be able to boast of being the first private company to provide the shuttle to the ISS for astronauts.
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