After more than two months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley returned to Earth today, parachuting through the planet’s skies in a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The pair splashed down at 2:48 p.m. ET in the Gulf of Mexico—a site off the coast of the Florida Panhandle and far enough west to avoid the winds and rain of Hurricane Isaias.
The pair’s journey home concludes a history-making test flight called Demo-2, which returned crewed spaceflight capabilities to the United States after a nearly 10-year hiatus. The mission lifted off on May 30, marking the first time NASA astronauts piloted a spacecraft that’s owned and operated by a commercial company, rather than