After a record-setting mission to the International Space Station, the four SpaceX astronauts return to Earth safety.
SpaceX happens to be one of Elon Musk's dream monumental projects. The mission was started by the philanthropist in 2002 with the aim of creating a colony on Mars and reducing space transportation costs. Last November, a four-member crew of astronauts left to spend five months in space. This is the longest that any crew that launched in an American-built spacecraft has been in space. The four SpaceX astronauts are Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi.
The SpaceX capsule returned to Earth and touched down in the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday after returning from the International Space Station. The return was also the first nighttime splashdown for NASA astronauts since Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the moon, in 1968. SpaceX Crew-1's first operational round-trip mission came to an end after completing 167 days in space.
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