The first-ever commercial crewed spacecraft mission ended successfully on August 2 when the Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of the US state of Florida. The spacecraft, designed, developed, owned and operated by private-sector company SpaceX, was carrying US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley. The capsule and its crew were then retrieved by SpaceX recovery ship Go Navigator.

SpaceX was founded and is headed by South African-born engineer and entrepreneur Elon Musk. This mission was technically a demonstration mission, known as Demo-2 (Demo-1 was an uncrewed mission), which was the final step before Nasa can complete certification of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Falcon 9 rocket, their ground support systems, and mission procedures and operations, for routine crewed missions.

“Welcome home, Bob and Doug!” enthused Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine. “It’s a testament to what we can accomplish when we work together to do something once thought impossible. “Partners are key to how we go farther and take the next steps on daring missions to the Moon and Mars.”

Behnken and Hurley launched in the Crew Dragon from the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) in Florida on May 30 and docked with the International Space Station (ISS) 19 hours later, on May 31. After launch, they named their spacecraft Endeavour, in honour of the space shuttle of the same name that they had both served aboard. They spent 62 days on the ISS (plus another two days in space in the capsule). During this period Behnken carried out four spacewalks. Their splashdown in the sea was the first time an American spacecraft had carried out such an evolution in 45 years.

“On behalf of all SpaceX employees, thank you to Nasa for the opportunity to return human spaceflight to the United States by flying Nasa astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley,” highlighted SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell. “Congratulations to the entire SpaceX and Nasa team on such an extraordinary mission. “We could not be more proud to see Bob and Doug safely back home – we all appreciate their dedication to this mission and helping us start the journey towards carrying people regularly to low Earth orbit and on to the Moon and Mars. And I really hope they enjoyed the ride!”

When in routine operation, the Crew Dragon will be able to embark as many as four astronauts and can carry more than 100 kg of cargo. This will allow a larger crew on the ISS and the execution of an increased number of experiments. Nasa requires that operational Crew Dragons be able to stay in orbit for at least 210 days.

The Demo-2 mission was the first time since the retirement of the last Nasa space shuttle in 2011 that American astronauts had been launched into space by an American rocket from American soil. The mission was controlled by SpaceX from its leased (from Nasa) launch control centre at KSC and its mission control centre at Hawthorne, California. The entire mission was monitored by Nasa’s own Mission Control Centre, at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon from its Dragon cargo ship to meet the requirements of Nasa’s Commercial Crew Programme (CCP). This programme is intended to provide routine crew transport into space, delivered by commercial companies, allowing Nasa to get out of the ‘taxi’ business and focus on its core mission: scientific exploration, whether of other worlds or of Earth itself, and whether by robotic or crewed missions.

The other company involved in the CCP is Boeing. However, Boeing’s spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner (also a capsule design) had an unsuccessful uncrewed first demonstration test flight in December. It will have to have a successful second uncrewed test flight before it will be allowed to undertake a crewed test flight. No date has yet been set for that second uncrewed flight.