SpaceX’s brand new crew capsule has splashed down on Earth – and might have changed the future of space travel as it did.
It dropped into the Atlantic Ocean, right on time, bringing an end to a mission that went entirely successfully and paves the way for the capsule to carry astronauts to space.
The Dragon capsule pulled away from the orbiting lab early Friday, a test dummy named Ripley its lone occupant. It’s aiming for a morning splashdown in the Atlantic off Florida’s coast, the final hurdle of the six-day test flight. Saturday’s launch and Sunday’s docking were spot on.
NASA astronauts have been stuck riding Russian rockets since space shuttles retired eight years ago. NASA is counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start launching astronauts this year. SpaceX is aiming for summer.
In dramatic, space age fashion, the capsule has undocked from the ISS:
Now it is floating in space between the Earth and the space station, preparing for its fiery descent.
Every bit of the journey has gone well so far. But Elon Musk has spoken about how this is the most stressful part: the capsule has to cope with some incredible stress as it hurtles into the atmosphere, and needs to do so in a way that would protect any living astronauts that were inside.
In this video still, you can see the capsule drifting away from the ISS and back towards home.
The capsule is expected to splashdown about 1.45pm UK time (or 8.45 eastern). But the real excitement will be just before that, when the capsule plunges down through the atmosphere and really puts its heat shielding to the test.
There's not a great deal going on right now: the live streams have come to an end, waiting to switch on in an hour or so when the splashdown coverage begins. In the meantime, if you are so minded, Nasa is showing video of the Earth taken from the International Space Station, with nice new age music over the top, which is definitely good for getting in the mood. (It won't be quite so chill when the proper descent begins, though.)
In the meantime, here are some nice images of the separation, from earlier.
And if you'd prefer those images to be moving, here's some nice video of the big moment earlier on:
Here's an incredible picture while we wait
We're still waiting for the live stream to begin, ahead of the splashdown. For now, Nasa TV is still showing that very calming vista of Earth, taken from the ISS
(The proper coverage should start in five minutes or so.)
The next 90 minutes or will be among the most intense parts of the mission: the capsule will slowly force itself out of orbit and towards the Earth, plunge through the atmosphere at such speed it will heat the outside up very intensely, and then splash down in the ocean. And if all that works, SpaceX will have made a big step towards being allowed to get astronauts into space.
(For context, there's no way the US can do this at the moment: its hope was always the Space Shuttle programme, so when that was cancelled it was left without a way of travelling up and down. Now it has to rely on the Russian space agency, which it pays to take astronauts to the ISS.
If this works, it could change all that, by completing a plan to let private US companies build the rockets and capsules that will allow them to fly to space again. So it's a big day for Nasa and space travel generally, as well as SpaceX.)
The coverage is now LIVE! We're seeing footage of the Dragon capsule being tested out and worked on.
We're not going to see every part of the mission because of a communications blackout. But we should be able to follow along and hear most of the important parts.
The first bit is the trunk separation, when the Dragon capsule will drop off a part of craft that includes things like a solar array for generating power. (The crew capsule has been moving away from the International Space Station to make sure there's no collision when that happens.) That will get it ready to drop back down to Earth.
If this all goes well, there's one more important test the capsule has to pass: an abort one, which will ensure that it's possible for the capsule to escape if something awful goes wrong during a future launch. Then, it will be approved, and astronauts (who have already been chosen) will climb into it and head up to space later this year.
While we wait, here's a beautiful picture snapped from onboard by the ISS by astronaut Anne McClain. Though it shows the capsule's approach, the two spacecraft are in something like this arrangement now – floating together through space but separated by some distance.
Here's the scene inside SpaceX – the equivalent of that iconic view of mission control at Nasa. People are starting to gather at the back, as you can see, to watch the big moment.
We're just waiting for the trunk separation now. That'll be the last bit before it starts dropping and heading towards the atmosphere.
The trunk is separated! Goodbye trunk! Unlike the capsule, it won't come back down, floating around and then burning up in space.
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