Hawthorne-based SpaceX returned four astronauts from the International Space Station — including Pomona native Victor Glover — early Sunday, May 2, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the 1960s-era Apollo 8 moonshot.
The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m. EST (midnight Saturday PST), ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company.
It was an express trip home, lasting just 6 1/2 hours.
“We welcome you back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” the company’s Mission Control radioed moments after splashdown. “For those of you enrolled in our frequent flyer program, you’ve earned 68 million miles on this voyage.”
Earthbound! That’s a wrap on my mission aboard @Space_Station. One step closer to family and home! https://t.co/4vAyMbwKsm
— Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover) May 2, 2021
“We’ll take those miles,” said spacecraft commander Mike Hopkins. “Are they transferrable?” SpaceX replied that the astronauts would have to check with the company’s marketing department.
Within a half-hour of splashdown, the charred capsule — resembling a giant toasted marshmallow — had been hoisted onto the recovery ship, which was equipped with bright spotlights.
Hopkins was the first one out, doing a little dance as he emerged under the intense spotlights.
https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1388761558117986316
“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when people come together,” he told SpaceX flight controllers at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. “Quite frankly, you all are changing the world. Congratulations. It’s great to be back.”
The 167-day mission was the longest for a crew capsule launching from the U.S. The previous record of 84 days was set by NASA’s final Skylab station astronauts in 1974.
Saturday night’s undocking left seven people at the space station, four of whom arrived a week ago via SpaceX.
“Earthbound!” NASA astronaut Victor Glover, the capsule’s pilot, tweeted after departing the station. “One step closer to family and home!”
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @AstroVicGlover, @Astro_illini, Shannon Walker, and @Astro_Soichi! pic.twitter.com/jEVQMyOgQT
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 2, 2021
Hopkins and Glover — along with NASA’s Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi — should have returned to Earth last Wednesday, but high offshore winds forced SpaceX to pass up a pair of daytime landing attempts. Managers switched to a rare splashdown in darkness, to take advantage of calm weather.
SpaceX had practiced for a nighttime return, just in case, and even recovered its most recent station cargo capsule from the Gulf of Mexico in darkness. Infrared cameras tracked the capsule as it re-entered the atmosphere; it resembled a bright star streaking through the night sky.
All four main parachutes could be seen deploying just before splashdown, which was also visible in the infrared.
Apollo 8 — NASA’s first flight to the moon with astronauts — ended with a predawn splashdown in the Pacific near Hawaii on Dec. 27, 1968. Eight years later, a Soviet capsule with two cosmonauts ended up in a dark, partially frozen lake in Kazakhstan, blown off course in a blizzard.
That was it for nighttime crew splashdowns — until Sunday.
Despite the early hour, the Coast Guard was out in full force to enforce an 11-mile keep-out zone around the bobbing Dragon capsule. For SpaceX’s first crew return in August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule, a safety risk.
Once aboard the SpaceX recovery ship, the astronauts planned to hop on a helicopter for the short flight to shore, then catch a plane straight to Houston for a reunion with their families.
Their capsule, Resilience, was set to head back to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment for SpaceX’s first private crew mission in September. The space station docking mechanism will be removed, and a brand new domed window put in its place.
A tech billionaire has purchased the entire three-day flight, which will orbit 75 miles above the space station. He’ll fly with a pair of contest winners and a physician assistant from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, his designated charity for the mission.
SpaceX’s next astronaut launch for NASA will follow in October.
NASA turned to private companies to service the space station, after the shuttle fleet retired in 2011. SpaceX began supply runs in 2012 and, last May, launched its first crew, ending NASA’s reliance on Russia for astronaut transport.
Drogue and main parachutes have deployed pic.twitter.com/mdCJzt9ooK
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 2, 2021
Boeing isn’t expected to launch astronauts until early next year.
After dangerously high winds scuttled a pair of earlier attempts, four astronauts began their commute back to Earth on Saturday evening. The crew of four undocked and pushed off from the ISS in the capsule crafted by billionnaire entrepreneur/Tesla founder Musk’s South Bay rocketbuilder at about 5:35 p.m. PST
“Separation confirmed,” SpaceX tweeted at 5:37 p.m. “Undocking confirmed! After 167 days in space – the most for a U.S. spacecraft since the final Skylab mission in 1974 – NASA’s @SpaceXCrew-1 astronauts are coming home,” NASA posted on Twitter moments later.
On NASA’s live video feed, astronauts described a spectacular view of the space station as their capsule wafted away from their home for the last six months.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1388653717260443652
The astronauts circled the planet a number of times over the hours that followed until splashdown.
NASA had not conducted a nighttime splashdown since 1968. SpaceX, however, brought back a station cargo capsule with a splashdown in darkness in January. That added to NASA’s confidence for a nighttime homecoming, said Rob Navias, a spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The replacements for the departing crew — representing the U.S., Japan and France — arrived last weekend in their own SpaceX capsule for a six-month mission. The three remaining crew members — one American and two Russians — launched in a Russian capsule from Kazakhstan three weeks ago.
On board the space station, history-making astronaut Glover turned 45 on Saturday and his crewmates celebrated his birthday with an impromptu party, including live music on saxophone and keyboard.
“Gratitude, wonder, connection. I’m full of and motivated by these feelings on my birthday, as my first mission to space comes to an end,” Glover tweeted Saturday. “This orbiting laboratory is a true testament to what we can accomplish when we work together as a team. Crew-1 is ready for our ride home!”
Gratitude, wonder, connection. I’m full of and motivated by these feelings on my birthday, as my first mission to space comes to an end. This orbiting laboratory is a true testament to what we can accomplish when we work together as a team. Crew-1 is ready for our ride home! pic.twitter.com/CC6MajkZ1E
— Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover) April 30, 2021
Glover and his fellow astronauts spent the past six months on board the ISS conducting science experiments and making repairs.
Their mission marked just the second time a SpaceX capsule delivered astronauts to the space station, though the trend-setting aerospace company has completed many routine missions with cargo crafts to resupply the station. A series of six manned missions to the ISS scheduled by NASA also marked a return to human space travel from U.S. soil since the shuttle program shutdown in 2011. Since then, NASA astronauts have hitched a ride onboard Russian Soyuz rockets.
The so-called Crew-1 mission launched Nov. 15 with the very same recycled Falcon 9 rocket that lifted NASA’s current four-astronaut contingent on April 23. The Crew-2 mission used a different Dragon capsule, dubbed “Endeavour,” that is currently docked at the ISS.
Crew-1’s successful return bolsters SpaceX’s burgeoning role in NASA’s human spaceflight activities. NASA also selected SpaceX in April to devise a human lunar-landing system with the company’s futuristic Starship. That award is under protest by other bidders.
Boeing is developing a second spacecraft for NASA’s commercial crew program, the CST-100 Starliner, which has been beset by delays and a botched test flight last year with no astronauts aboard. Boeing hopes to fly a second Starliner test without people as soon as August.
The trip to space was a first for Glover, who also became the first Black astronaut assigned to a full rotation on the space station. He’s also just the 15th Black astronaut to reach space.
“Lord willing I will be seeing you soon. I look forward to being with you physically in person soon. It will be awesome,” said Glover, addressing his wife and family during the crew’s initial send-off ceremony on Tuesday.
Glover grew up in Pomona, graduated from Ontario High and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (he’s also got three Masters degrees).
“It’s been an awesome adventure,” Glover said. “It truly is a privilege to live and work here and being able to do both makes this really a unique experience. It was really an honor to be a part of an exhibition and see what it’s like to fly the International Space Station.”
Staff writer David Rosenfeld, the New York Times, the Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.
