updates
Crew-1 returns after 167 days
On May 2, 2021, SpaceX said Crew-1 splashed down off Florida at 2:56 a.m. EDT after 167 days, the first night crew splashdown for a U.S. ship since Apollo 8.
Topics: space-civilization
This page is an original Muskularity summary. It does not republish SpaceX’s full post. Figures are the company’s statements on the cited date unless another primary link is named.
Summary
Crew-1’s Dragon came home after 167 days, which SpaceX compared with the last Skylab mission in 1974 as the longest U.S. spacecraft flight in the years between. The crew: Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA. Undocking was autonomous at 8:35 p.m. EDT on May 1. The trunk was dropped before the deorbit burn. Two drogues and four mains were used. Splashdown was off Florida at 2:56 a.m. EDT on May 2, about 6.5 hours after undocking. SpaceX called it the first night splashdown of a crewed U.S. spacecraft since Apollo 8 in 1968. The capsule was headed to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment.
Key facts
| Fact | Label |
|---|---|
| 167 days; undock May 1, 2021, 8:35 p.m. EDT; splashdown May 2, 2:56 a.m. EDT | Company mission report |
| Crew: Hopkins, Glover, Walker, Noguchi | Company crew list |
| First crewed U.S. night splashdown since Apollo 8, as SpaceX stated it | Company historical comparison |
Why it matters
This closes the first operational crew rotation certified in November 2020. Trunk separation before the burn is the method SpaceX later changed after debris reached land, as described in the 2024 West Coast recovery post.
On this site
Sources
- SpaceX update, May 2, 2021 — Grade A, company post
- NASA biography, Michael Hopkins — Grade A, NASA
- NASA biography, Victor Glover — Grade A, NASA
- NASA biography, Shannon Walker — Grade A, NASA
- JAXA biography, Soichi Noguchi — Grade A, JAXA
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