After three days orbiting Earth, the astronauts of Inspiration4 flying aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft safely splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 7:06 p.m. EDT. The return marks the completion of the world’s first all-civilian human spaceflight to orbit, which launched on a flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.
Teams on SpaceX’s Go Searcher recovery ship are in the process of securing the spacecraft to be hoisted onto the main deck of the ship, where the Inspiration4 crew will egress the spacecraft and receive medical checks before a helicopter ride back to Kennedy Space Center.
