SpaceX makes rare midnight splashdown

Four astronauts return home safely from the International Space Station.

By

National News

May 2, 2021 - 8:57 AM

NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, left, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, right, are seen shortly after landing in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, at 2:56 a.m. May 2, 2021. Photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.

The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m., ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company.

It was an express trip home, lasting just 6 1/2 hours.

The astronauts, three American and one Japanese, flew back in the same capsule — named Resilience — in which they launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in November.

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