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ET, the spaceship gently shoved off the ISS with a series of small burps of propellant, right on schedule. Once they were packed up, they said goodbye to the ISS crew members they lived and worked with for two months: NASA astronaut and station commander Chris Cassidy, and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.īehnken and Hurley then climbed into Endeavour, donned their spacesuits, closed the hatch, and began preparing to depart. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley prepare to depart the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship on August 1, 2020.īehnken and Hurley launched to orbit on May 30 and docked to the ISS a day later, beginning their historic 63-day mission chockful of science, space station maintenance, and breathtaking views of Comet Neowise.īut all good things must come to an end, and the crew began loading supplies, experiments, and personal effects - including an historic American flag - into Endeavour early Saturday morning. The beginning of the end to an historic 63-day mission If the flight successfully lands on Sunday afternoon, it would be the first crewed American spaceship to leave and return to Earth since July 2011, when NASA retired its space shuttle program. Now that they've flown away from the ISS, they must perform a risky descent through Earth's atmosphere - the phase of the flight that Musk has called his ' biggest concern.' The Demo-2 mission's departure makes SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, the first company in NASA's Commercial Crew Program to successfully pull off a visit to the $150 billion, football field-size laboratory.īut Behnken and Hurley's return trip has just begun. It's SpaceX's second experimental flight of the vehicle, a mission called Demo-2, and the aerospace company's first time putting people on board. The two NASA astronauts departed the International Space Station on Saturday evening, beginning a roughly day-long voyage back to their families on Earth.īehnken and Hurley left in a vehicle called Crew Dragon 'Endeavour,' a spaceship designed, built, and operated by SpaceX with about $2.7 billion in government funding. Note: For the latest information about landing for SpaceX's Demo-2 mission, visit our live coverage page with streaming video commentary from NASA TV.īob Behnken and Doug Hurley are on their way home.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has described the landing phase as his 'biggest concern' for the mission.The crew is now targeting a landing of their ship, which they named 'Endeavour,' in the Gulf of Mexico on around 2:48 p.m.Behnken and Hurley boarded the company's new Crew Dragon spaceship on Saturday, undocked from the International Space Station, and flew away.SpaceX has entered the final stage of its historic first flight of people: NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are on their way home.