NASA’s Crew-2 mission reached a successful conclusion with the safe return of the Dragon capsule in another smooth splashdown and recovery by the SpaceX commercial team. Four astronauts were captured in a brief video from inside the Endeavor spacecraft after recovery, smiling and signing thumbs-up and the V gesture with fingers to represent victory, peace, or both, a great example of humanity working together to advance science with a common goal of discovery and progress.

This was the second commercial mission by SpaceX to make deliveries to the International Space Station. In addition, this was the first crewed flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft named Resilience, which launched in November of last year. The Crew Dragon carried four astronauts atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and piloted to the International Space Station and docked. The crew spent over five months in space before undocking and splashing down early in May of 2021. The SpaceX Crew-2 launched soon after, proving the speed and reliability of this partnership with NASA.

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NASA’s Crew-2 astronauts safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just off of Pensacola, Florida, on Nov. 8, 2021, after a record-setting stay of 198 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Traveling a staggering 84,653,119 miles and orbiting the Earth 3,194 times, the Crew-2 astronauts made four spacewalks, participated in a variety of science missions, and contributed to the ongoing maintenance of the space station. NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet were in good spirits, as seen in a video shared by NASA via Twitter. A long re-entry was filmed from the ground by Jonny D and shared on YouTube.