courtesy of NASA shows SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour firing one of
its thrusters to back away from the International Space Station
photographed by Space Station Commander Chris Cassidy on August 1,
2020. Chris Cassidy / NASA / AFP
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft shoved off from
the International Space Station on Saturday with two US astronauts
on board, beginning their journey back to Earth despite a storm
threatening Florida.
NASA footage showed the capsule drifting slowly away from the
ISS in the darkness of space, ending a two month stay for the first
US astronauts to reach the orbiting lab on an American
spacecraft in nearly a decade.
“And they are off!” the US space agency tweeted, with Doug
Hurley and Bob Behnken set to splash down Sunday.
“(They) will spend one more night in space prior to returning to
their homeland, Earth,” NASA tweeted.
Their proposed splash-down sites are off the coast of western
Florida’s panhandle, while tropical storm Isaias is headed toward
the state’s east coast.
NASA opted to go ahead with bringing the pair home despite the
threat of Isaias, which was downgraded to a tropical storm from a
hurricane on Saturday.
The agency later added the capsule was confirmed to be “on a
safe trajectory.”
“Now is the entry, descent and splashdown phase after we undock,
hopefully a little bit later today,” Hurley said in a farewell
ceremony aboard the ISS that was broadcast on NASA TV.
“The teams are working really hard, especially with the dynamics
of the weather over the next few days around Florida,” he said.
reach the International Space Station on an American spacecraft in
nearly a decade might not come home this weekend as scheduled
because of Hurricane Isaias, NASA said July 31, 2020. Credit:
AFP
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Earlier, during the ISS ceremony, Behnken said that “the hardest
part was getting us launched. But the most important part in
bringing us home.”
Addressing his son and Hurley’s son, he held up a toy dinosaur
that the children chose to send on the mission and said: “Tremor
The Apatosaurus is headed home soon and he’ll be with your
dads.”
Behnken later tweeted: “All my bags are packed, I’m ready to
go.”
‘Exciting day’
Mission chief Chris Cassidy called it an “exciting day” and
hailed the importance of having a new means to transport
astronauts.
The mission, which blasted off May 30, marked the first time a
crewed spaceship had launched into orbit from American soil since
2011 when the space shuttle program ended.
It was also the first time a private company has flown to the
ISS carrying astronauts.
The US has paid SpaceX and aerospace giant Boeing a total of
about $7 billion for their “space taxi” contracts.
But Boeing’s program has floundered badly after a failed test
run late last year, which left SpaceX, a company founded only in
2002, as the clear frontrunner.
For the past nine years, US astronauts travelled exclusively on
Russian Soyuz rockets, for a price of around $80 million per
seat.
AFP
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