SpaceX Crew Dragon returns to Earth in first splashdown landing since 1975

Published August 2, 2020 6:49pm ET



SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has returned to Earth months after the first crewed launch from U.S. soil in nearly a decade.

The spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, departed from the International Space Station, where it docked in late May, on Saturday and landed in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday afternoon. The splashdown off the coast of Florida marked the first water landing since 1975 when crews were still flying to and from orbit in the Apollo modules used for missions to the moon.

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