Spacex's Spacecraft Crew Successfully Returned With Dragon Passengers

SpaceX's history-writing Crew Dragon mission was successfully completed two months after its launch. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley successfully landed in the Atlantic Ocean at 9:48 p.m. Turkish time today, or rather the Gulf of Mexico. Thus, after 20 hours of their journey towards the world, the landing was completed.

Thus, the crewed orbital flight with the first spacecraft produced by a private company was successfully completed. It was also the first time a manned space journey from U.S. soil was launched after space shuttle Space Shuttle, an American spacecraft that retired in 2011. In addition, for the first time in 45 years, a landing was made in U.S. territorial waters.

In fact, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo went into space in December 2018, setting the first door for manned US flights. But that flight was the nature of the suborbital journey. As with the launch, crew dragon's descent was compared to many previous manned space missions. Behnken and Hurley conducted or contributed to the execution of various experiments during their two-month stint on the International Space Station.

Beyond the realisation of the firsts, this Crew Dragon flight has another significance. This was the last Crew Dragon test flight. After SpaceX receives NASA certification, future flights will be normal missions where astronauts are transported to the International Space Station. Crew Dragon has two scheduled flights ahead of us, one in September and the other in the spring of 2021.

NASA's costs are declining with Crew Dragon

Meanwhile, a significant turning point has been passed for NASA in the success of the Commercial Crew Program, which was developed to operate more flights and work at a lower cost. NASA has long been using the Russians' Soyuz spacecraft to transport its astronauts to the space station. It cost $80 million for each passenger. With NASA's Commercial Crew Program, the cost is down to $55 million.

At the same time, crew dragon's success is a big plus written into SpaceX's house. Boeing is also working for the same target as the Starliner capsule, but now SpaceX clearly appears to be ahead. This could give NASA more opportunities. We can also see more civilian flights taking place as the space trade evolves. So, with the spacecraft developed by private companies in the future, not only astronauts, but normal humans can be transported into space.

In fact, SpaceX has more ambitious goals beyond this program. SpaceX aims to travel to farther destinations such as Mars with its spacecraft project Starship. Crew Dragon's success shows that the company is on the right track.