OT: Thank you for flying SpaceX...

[purplefaithful]

Great day for the American space program...US is back in the game of manned, orbital flight:

The first set of parachutes, called "drogue parachutes," just stretched up above the Crew Dragon spacecraft. In about a minute, a second plume of four main parachutes — which are much larger — will fan out to continue slowing Hurley and Behnken's descent. 

They were followed quickly by the Crew Dragon's four main parachutes. Behnken and Hurley are rapidly approaching their splashdown site. The parachutes will aim to slow the spacecraft down to 15 or 16 miles per hour before hitting the ocean.

[Guest]

The Crew Dragon capsule has splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico, finishing off the hardest part of today's journey.

And SpaceX personnel cheered loudly from inside mission control at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California headquarters. The GO Navigator rescue ship will move in to haul the Crew Dragon spacecraft out of the water and allow Behnken and Hurley to disembark.

[Guest]

The recovery ship GO Navigator has closed in on the Crew Dragon spacecraft, with astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken still strapped inside.

At the ship's rear is a large rig that has plucked the spacecraft out of the ocean and nestled it in an onboard dock, nicknamed the Dragon's nest.
Soon after it's on board, Behnken and Hurley will disembark and take their first steps back onto their home planet. 

[Guest]

The Crew Dragon recovery team has detected small amounts of NTO, or nitrogen tetroxide, a potentially toxic propellant used in the capsule's onboard rocket engines.
The levels aren't high enough to be dangerous to humans, according to SpaceX and NASA officials. And the air inside the spacecraft is clean.

But the safety teams want to put the issue to bed before the astronauts are allowed to disembark.

[Guest]

[Guest]

NASA has waited for years to regain the ability to fly its own astronauts to and from the space station. After the Shuttle program ended, the space agency had to rely on Russia's Soyuz vehicles to ferry NASA crews to the ISS, and the United States has paid Russia as much as $90 million per seat for those trips.
Rather than building its own replacement for the Space Shuttle, however, NASA asked the private sector to develop spacecraft capable to design and develop its own vehicles so that the space agency could focus on exploring deeper into the solar system.
In 2014, NASA awarded two fixed-price contracts: $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX, which planned to design a crew-worthy version of the Dragon capsule that had already been flying cargo to and from the International Space Station. 
After both companies struggled with development delays, SpaceX beat Boeing to the launch pad with Hurley and Behnken's crewed test mission earlier this year. 
Boeing, which suffered significant setbacks during a test in December, is planning to repeat an uncrewed test mission later this year
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/tech/nasa...index.html

[Guest]

Doug and Bob are back on the planet.  Capitalism in the space race.  What Space Ex has done is amazing with the re usable equipment.