SpaceX capsule splashes down off Florida coast, bringing 4 space station astronauts back to Earth
CBSN
One day after undocking from the International Space Station, four astronauts plunged back to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule early Friday, streaking across southern Mexico to an on-target splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico west of Tampa to close out a six-month mission.
With Crew-3 commander Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn monitoring the automated descent, the Crew Dragon "Endurance" fired its braking thrusters for nearly eight minutes starting at 11:53 p.m. EDT, slowing the ship by about 120 mph to drop out of orbit.
After a 38-minute freefall, the capsule slammed into the discernible atmosphere at nearly 5 miles per second, streaking high above southern Mexico and out over the Gulf on a southwest to northeast trajectory, rapidly decelerating in a blaze of atmospheric friction.
On the eve of the D-Day invasion, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower spent the remaining hours of daylight with the paratroopers who were about to jump behind German lines into occupied France. A single moment captured by an Army photographer became the most enduring image of America's greatest military operation.