Space’sX CRS-21 Cargo Dragon returned to Earth from the ISS today, January 13, 2021, splashing down off the coast of Florida for the first time ever. The ship also succeeded in the first-ever autonomous undocking.
Numerous private vessels approach the spacecraft after splashdown, as seen in this recovery photograph of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in August, 2020. Image via Spaceflight Now/NASA/Bill Ingalls. / Support teams arrive at the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, shortly after it splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, on Aug. 2, 2020, for the agency’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission. Behind them is the SpaceX GO Navigator recovery ship, where Crew Dragon was taken for Behnken and Hurley to exit the capsule. The final flight test for SpaceX under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Demo-2 will pave the way for the agency to certify the company’s transportation system for regular, crewed flights to the orbiting laboratory.