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Astronauts: SpaceX Dragon capsule 'came alive' on descent
In this frame grab from NASA TV video, astronauts Bob Behnken, left, and Doug Hurley wave during a news conference, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, in Houston. The two NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown carried out by Elon Musk's SpaceX company. (NASA TV via AP)
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Astronauts: SpaceX Dragon capsule 'came alive' on descent
The two NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown carried out by Elon Musk's SpaceX company. Two days after returning from the International Space Station, NASA’s Bob Behnken described in vivid detail their wild ride home. “Once we descended a little bit into the atmosphere, the Dragon really, it came alive,” Behnken said from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. SpaceX became the first private company to send astronauts into orbit with the May 30 liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, ending a nine-year launch drought from home soil for NASA astronauts. It was the first splashdown for NASA astronauts in 45 years.
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US astronauts pack up for rare splashdown in SpaceX capsule
This image made available by NASA astronaut Bob Behnken on Friday, July 31, 2020, shows him inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station. SpaceX and NASA plan to bring Behnken and Doug Hurley back Sunday afternoon, aiming for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida Panhandle. (NASA via AP)
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US astronauts pack up for rare splashdown in SpaceX capsule
This image made available by NASA astronaut Bob Behnken on Friday, July 31, 2020, shows him inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station. SpaceX and NASA plan to bring Behnken and Doug Hurley back Sunday afternoon, aiming for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida Panhandle. (NASA via AP)
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US astronauts pack up for rare splashdown in SpaceX capsule
Astronauts returning in the early 1970s from Skylab, NASA’s first space station, did not feel well following splashdown, Hurley noted. Feeling sick “is the way it is with a water landing,” he said during the crew’s final news conference from the International Space Station. The capsule has been docked at the space station since May 31, allowing Hurley and Behnken to chip in with spacewalks and experiments. The plan is for the Dragon to undock from the space station on Saturday, a day before splashdown. “We won’t leave the space station without some good landing opportunities in front of us, good splashdown weather,” Behnken told reporters.
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Dragon-riding astronauts join exclusive inner circle at NASA
It will be the first astronaut launch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011. (SpaceX via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken join NASA’s exclusive inner circle by catching a ride on a SpaceX rocket and capsule. Their destination is the International Space Station, where they’ll spend one to four months before guiding their capsule to a splashdown in the Atlantic. Wife Karen Nyberg, a former space station resident, retired two months ago from NASA. As joint operations commander, he'll oversee the Dragon’s rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station.
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NASA's newest test pilots are veteran astronauts, friends
(SpaceX via AP)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The two astronauts who will test drive SpaceX’s brand new rocketship are classmates and friends, veteran spacefliers married to veteran spacefliers, and fathers of young sons. Retired Marine Col. Doug Hurley will be in charge of launch and landing, a fitting assignment for the pilot of NASA’s last space shuttle flight. Hurley, 53, and Behnken, 49, are NASA’s first test pilot crew in decades. Crippen and the late John Young rode NASA’s first space shuttle, Columbia, into orbit on April 12, 1981. Hurley and Behnken — both two-time space shuttle fliers — were among four astronauts chosen in 2015 for NASA’s commercial crew program.