Saturday, December 06, 2025 | 11:49 AM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

SpaceX helping NASA astronauts to retro-style splashdown, first in 45 years

It will mark the first splashdown in 45 years for NASA astronauts and the first return in the gulf

NASA
premium

The last time NASA astronauts returned from space to water was on July 24, 1975, in the Pacific, the scene of most splashdowns, to end a joint US-Soviet mission known as Apollo-Soyuz

AP | PTI
The first astronauts to ride a SpaceX capsule into orbit headed toward a retro-style splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday afternoon to close out a two-month test flight.

It will mark the first splashdown in 45 years for NASA astronauts and the first return in the gulf. Unlike Florida's Atlantic coast, already feeling the effects of Tropical Storm Isaias, the waves and wind were calm near Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.

Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken departed the International Space Station on Saturday night, and awoke to a recording of their young children urging them to