NOLS grads return safely to Earth today

August 2, 2020

50182385066_d1ff8f191c_k — h/t NASA/Bill Ingalls - NASA astronauts Robert Behnken, left, and Douglas Hurley are seen inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX GO Navigator recovery ship shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. The Demo-2 test flight for NASA's Commercial Crew Program was the first to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and return them safely to Earth onboard a commercially built and operated spacecraft.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico today, August 2nd, for the first time in a commercially built and operated American crew spacecraft.

County 10 shared in an earlier post that both Behnken and Hurley are two-time NOLS grads. The Lander-based nonprofit and worldwide outdoor educator has partnered with NASA for many years.

They made the historic launch at the end of May and spent 64 days in space.

h/t NASA Television – SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida at 2:48 p.m. EDT Aug. 2, 2020, where the spacecraft is recovered by SpaceX and brought aboard the recovery ship ‘Go Navigator.’

“Behnken and Hurley’s return was the first splashdown for American astronauts since Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii on July 24, 1975, at the end of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project,” according to a NASA press release.