Joe Skipper/Reuters
- A New Orleans resident captured footage of SpaceX's Crew-2 as it reentered Earth's Atmosphere.
- SpaceX CEO Elon Musk compared the capsule's descent to a "shooting star."
- SpaceX launched the NASA mission to the International Space Station in April.
People took to Twitter to post videos of SpaceX's Dragon capsule as it returned to Earth on Monday night.
After six months in outer space, SpaceX's Crew-2 astronauts splashed down off the coast of Florida. SpaceX launched the NASA mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in April, using the same Crew Dragon capsule, Endeavour, that carried SpaceX's first crewed test flight to the ISS in 2020.
A New Orleans resident captured footage of the SpaceX crew as they entered the Earth's atmosphere.
The capsule appears to burn bright in the night sky, drawing a line over the horizon.
-Cassandra The Great (@_tehgreat) November 9, 2021
The sight elicited excitement for some. One viewer questioned in a video whether the capsule was a shooting star. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the tweet, saying the space company's aircraft "enters like a shooting star."
-Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2021
SpaceX is set to launch its next mission, Crew-3, on Wednesday at 9:03 p.m. ET, on a different Dragon capsule.
Four new astronauts - NASA's Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, along with ESA's Matthias Maurer - will replace Crew-2's Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA, Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency on the ISS.
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