Successful nighttime recovery of four astronauts on SpaceX Dragon space capsule.

Crew-2 Mission by Official SpaceX Photos is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

The Dragon capsule Resilience was successfully recovered during a night landing off the coast near Panama City, Florida.

5/2/21 – Space.com – SpaceX Crew Dragon makes 1st nighttime splashdown with US astronaut since Apollo era

This is the first night landing in the American program since Apollo 8.

Video of the recovery can be seen below. Skip forward to the about the 6 hour 34 minute point in the video. Splashdown is about 6:48. Dragon is onboard at about 7:15 mark.

The video:

The link: https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-1-astronaut-dragon-capsule-splashdown?jwsource=cl

Very cool to watch the recovery.

SpaceX has a special purpose built recovery ship, Go Navigator. There are two fast boats to get out to the capsule to prepare it. There is at least one helicopter in operation.

The main ship lifts the capsule out of the water. The capsule is pulled into a hanger. Astronauts climb out after loaded onto the ship and pulled into hanger. In four hours they will be ashore.

You can appreciate the massive size of Dragon once the capsule is onboard and recovery personnel are working on safeing the capsule.

Fun exchange after spashdown. SpaceX controller announced the SpaceX frequent fliers have earned 61 million miles. Crew commander asked if the miles are transferrable. Controller advised contacting marketing department for answer. Good stuff.

Astounding. Absolutely astounding.

Check out the video. It is a kick.

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