SpaceX Demo-1 Crew Dragon Capsule Returns to Port Canaveral

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is offloaded from the company’s recovery ship, Go Searcher, in Florida’s Port Canaveral on Saturday, March 9, 2019. Crew Dragon splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 miles off Florida’s east coast, at 8:45 a.m. EST on March 8, after undocking from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. As part of the Demo-1 mission, the uncrewed spacecraft docked to the orbiting laboratory on March 3, following a 2:49 a.m. EST liftoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2. SpaceX’s inaugural flight with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is the first flight test of a space system designed for humans built and operated by a commercial company through a public-private partnership. NASA and SpaceX will use data from Demo-1 to further prepare for Demo-2, the crewed flight test that will carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station later this year.