Astronauts on the Crew Dragon SpaceX capsule safely returned to earth Sunday afternoon, landing in the Gulf of Mexico in what’s referred to as a “splashdown.”
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were the two NASA astronauts on board for the first-ever in a commercially owned spacecraft.
The historic landing is actually the first time in 45 years such a splashdown has taken place. Per the AP:
The last time NASA astronauts returned from space to water was on July 24, 1975, in the Pacific, the scene of most splashdowns, to end a joint U.S.-Soviet mission known as Apollo-Soyuz. The Mercury and Gemini crews in the early to mid-1960s parachuted into the Atlantic, while most of the later Apollo capsules hit the Pacific.
You can watch footage of the landing above, via CNN.