Home » WATCH: Crew Dragon Sails into Port Canaveral after Splashdown Off Florida Coast

WATCH: Crew Dragon Sails into Port Canaveral after Splashdown Off Florida Coast

By  //  March 10, 2019

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splashdown in the Atlantic was almost 50 years after the return of Apollo 9 on March 13, 1969

CREW DRAGON ARRIVES AT PORT: As hundreds of spectators look on at Port Canaveral’s Jetty Park, the SpaceX recovery vessel “Go Searcher,” carrying the Crew Dragon capsule, sailed into Port Canaveral around 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

BREVARD COUNTY • PORT CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – As hundreds of spectators look on at Port Canaveral’s Jetty Park, the SpaceX recovery vessel “Go Searcher,” carrying the Crew Dragon capsule, sailed into Port Canaveral around 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

The vessel turned into the Navy Port and East Basin instead of traveling deeper into the Port.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s eastern shore.

The unmanned Crew Dragon, which became the first commercial spacecraft built for human travel to dock at the International Space Station during its Demo-1 test flight, splashed down safely Friday morning.

The mission, known as Demo-1, is a critical step for NASA and SpaceX to demonstrate the ability to safely fly missions with NASA astronauts to the orbital laboratory.

The mission’s success could lead to the first U.S. manned flight since 2011, with liftoff as early as July.

SpaceX’s recovery ship, Go Searcher, is equipped with a crane to lift Crew Dragon out of the water and onto the main deck of the ship within an hour after splashdown.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Capsule Splashes Down In Atlantic OceanRelated Story:
VIDEO OF THE DAY: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Capsule Splashes Down In Atlantic Ocean

NASA and SpaceX still have work to do to review the systems and flight data to validate the spacecraft’s performance and prepare it to fly astronauts.

Already planned upgrades, additional qualification testing, and an in-flight abort test will occur before NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will climb aboard for Demo-2, the crewed flight test to the International Space Station that is necessary to certify Crew Dragon for routine operational missions.

Crew Dragon’s splashdown in the Atlantic was almost 50 years after the return of Apollo 9 on March 13, 1969, the last human spacecraft to return to the waters off the East Coast.

Already planned upgrades, additional qualification testing, and an in-flight abort test will occur before NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will climb aboard for Demo-2, the crewed flight test to the International Space Station that is necessary to certify Crew Dragon for routine operational missions. (SpaceX image)
The unmanned Crew Dragon, which became the first commercial spacecraft built for human travel to dock at the International Space Station during its Demo-1 test flight, splashed down safely Friday morning. (NASA image)

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