CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A pair of NASA astronauts face the final and most important part of their SpaceX test flight: returning to Earth with a rare splashdown. Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken took part in a farewell ceremony Saturday at the International Space Station, several hours ahead of their planned departure on a SpaceX Dragon capsule. It will be the first splashdown for astronauts in 45 years. The last time was following the joint U.S.-Soviet mission in 1975 known as Apollo-Soyuz. The astronauts' homecoming will cap a two-month mission that ended a prolonged launch drought in the U.S., which has relied on Russian rockets to ferry astronauts to the space station since the end of the shuttle era.

Source: International New York Times August 01, 2020 15:11 UTC