SpaceX's toasted Crew Dragon returns home after historic NASA astronaut splashdown

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule resembles a toasty marshmallow on board its transport as it returns to Port Canaveral on Aug. 7, 2020.
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule resembles a toasty marshmallow on board its transport as it returns to Port Canaveral on Aug. 7, 2020. (Image credit: Amy Thompson/Space.com)

 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule cruised into its home port Friday evening (Aug. 7), secured to one of the company’s recovery vessels. 

Onlookers gathered at Jetty Park (while social distancing) in anticipation of the Crew Dragon’s arrival after the capsule's historic splashdown on Aug. 2 that returned NASA astronauts Bob Benken and Doug Hurley to Earth. The mission, SpaceX's first crewed flight, was NASA's first orbital crewed flight from U.S. soil since 2011.

Jetty Park — a popular launch viewing location — is located at the mouth of the port, and all marine traffic comes through this point. Typically packed with excited space fans waiting to see a launch, Jetty Park has been closed during most of the pandemic, but recently reopened in phases.  

Related: 'It sounds like an animal': NASA astronauts describe Crew Dragon reentry

The SpaceX recovery ship carrying Crew Dragon, named GO Navigator, pulled into port just after 5:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Friday. Crew members on board the ship waved at onlookers as the vessel made its short trek through the channel. 

The ship and Crew Dragon were quickly moved into a U.S. Navy submarine basin, where the vehicle would be offloaded and transported to SpaceX's Cape Canaveral facilities. (Typically, when SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket first stages arrive in port after landing on one of the company’s drone ships, the boosters are towed to SpaceX's dock, further into the port). 

Friday's arrival wrapped up SpaceX’s historic first crewed mission, that began when astronauts Behnken and Hurley blasted off from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on May 30. Just over two months ago, a shiny new Falcon 9 rocket, adorned with NASA's retro worm logo, lofted the capsule into orbit. Crew Dragon then spent about a day chasing down the International Space Station, before delivering Behnken and Hurley to the orbiting outpost. 

Full coverage: SpaceX's historic Demo-2 Crew Dragon astronaut test flight 

SpaceX's GO Navigator returns to Port Canaveral in Cape Canaveral Florida on Aug. 7, 2020 following a successful splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola on Aug. 2.  (Image credit: Amy Thompson/Space.com)

The duo spent a total of 63 days on station, assisting fellow NASA astronaut, Chris Cassidy, with station maintenance, research experiments, and even a series of spacewalks. 

Crew Dragon departed the space station Saturday evening (Aug. 1), splashing down off the coast of Pensacola, in the Gulf of Mexico at 2:48 p.m. EST (1848 GMT) on Sunday (Aug. 2). Recovery crews were waiting to pluck the capsule — its previous stark white exterior now resembling a toasted marshmallow — out of the water and haul it back to shore.

GO Navigator met the Dragon and hoisted the capsule aboard shortly after splashdown. After a series of checkouts, recovery teams opened the craft’s hatch at 3:59 p.m. EDT (1959 GMT), extracting the two astronauts about 10 minutes later. 

Once the astronauts were safely offloaded, GO Navigator began its journey back to Port Canaveral. The craft sailed around the Florida peninsula, arriving back at its home dock five days later. With the help of marine traffic sites, space enthusiasts were able to track Dragon on its journey home. 

In photos: A behind-the-scenes look at SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship

It was a bright, beautiful Florida afternoon as SpaceX's Dragon-toting vessel appeared on the horizon, it’' white paint gleaming in the sunlight. As the distance between GO Navigator and her awaiting fans closed, Crew Dragon came into view. Peeking out from the stern of the ship, Dragon's scorched appearance was visible as the vessel approached the Navy basin. 

Once Dragon is offloaded, SpaceX engineers will take it apart so they can analyze how it performed. The craft is scheduled to fly again next spring, and this time with a crew of four. NASA officials expect to certify the craft for regular astronaut flights as soon as the end of this month. That certification will greenlight SpaceX's next crew of astronauts to fly on a long-duration mission to the space station. 

In the meantime, SpaceX's drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You, is expected to return to port in a few days. Early Friday (Aug. 7), the company launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets, carrying a stack of Starlink satellites into space along with two small satellites for Black Sky Global. 

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

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Amy Thompson
Contributing Writer

Amy Thompson is a Florida-based space and science journalist, who joined Space.com as a contributing writer in 2015. She's passionate about all things space and is a huge science and science-fiction geek. Star Wars is her favorite fandom, with that sassy little droid, R2D2 being her favorite. She studied science at the University of Florida, earning a degree in microbiology. Her work has also been published in Newsweek, VICE, Smithsonian, and many more. Now she chases rockets, writing about launches, commercial space, space station science, and everything in between.

  • NavForce
    I was looking forward to an article about something other than COVID. Why did the author feel it was necessary to add (while social distancing)? That is not relevant to the story. It would be wonderful to read something that doesn't reference COVID.
    Reply