SpaceX Crew Dragon astronauts arrive home with rare pre-dawn splash in Gulf of Mexico May 3, 2021 by archyde Four astronauts were strapped to their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, disembarked from the International Space Station and plunged into a pre-dawn flight in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, stopping the first operational flight of a futuristic SpaceX ferry. First Crew Commander Michael Hopkins, along with NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soishi Noguchi, parted from the port facing space in the Harmony unit before the station at 8:35 p.m. EST. Saturday. This created the second test water landing for NASA’s post-shuttle commercial crew program and only the third night in space history – the first in nearly 45 years.