Inspiration4 | Splashdown

After three days orbiting Earth, Dragon and the Inspiration4 crew– the world’s first civilian mission to orbit – safely splashed down off the coast of Florida at 7:06 p.m. EDT on Saturday, September 18, 2021, completing their first multi-day low Earth orbit mission.

Dragon performed a series of departure phasing burns to leave the circular orbit of 575 kilometers and then jettisoned its trunk ahead of it deorbit burn. After re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft deployed its two drogue and four main parachutes in preparation for the soft water landing.

Upon splashdown, the Inspiration4 astronauts were welcomed home by the SpaceX team and quickly brought on board the recovery vessel. SpaceX transported Dragon back to Cape Canaveral for inspections and refurbishment ahead of future human spaceflight missions.

[leoh]

Shows the perfection of Spacex: A whole flight with absolutely no flaws. Great work everyone! On to the future of a spacefaring civilization.

[THE-RED-LETTER-PROJECT]

Elon was laughing behind his desk while Virgin and Jeff were playing their little edge of space games.😁

[glcol]

I love the inside of the capsule, just some easy chairs with one of the passengers taking pictures with their phone. And they didn't have to do any flying, all by remote and it went amazing. The boats are practically under them as they land, perfect coordination. And the passengers don't even have to get their feet wet.

[TALIHAWK]

Let's also give some love to the engineers and programmers.

[OortCloud]

The end of the mission, but the beginning of a new era. Congratulations SpaceX and Inspiration 4!

Chris enjoying some last minute Entertainment before atmospheric entry 13:08
Dragon Cupola view 24:37
View of Dragon during entry 1:05:05
View from Dragon of chutes 1:08:31
Splashdown at 1:12:17

[jennylee]

As a skydiver watching these are nerve wracking. The canopies can get tangled, not open properly and cause them to violently spin etc.. great work by SpaceX! These people are doing amazing work

[drewmadenew]

I’ve spent the past 20 or so years disappointed that I was born a decade after the last Apollo mission. It seemed like the glory years of space exploration were already behind us, but SpaceX has shown that the best is yet to come. The moon was an amazing achievement, but as the first all civilian astronaut crew reminded us, “We are just getting started!”

[mrman]

Space X has perfected this art. As far as Falcon 9 and Dragon is concerned, they’ve perfected the art.
Starship is next. I believe in them.

[fazymousa]

I appreciate that Spacex shows as much of the reentry and recovery operation as possible

[kentslocum]

I appreciate that Spacex shows as much of the reentry and recovery operation as possible, even when there's not much happening. It's not made into a commercial or advertisement like Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic.

[TheNefastor]

13:20 watching *Spaceballs* in space. That's one hell of a baller move ! I endorse this choice of entertainment !

[sureshbehera]

Timestamp for anyone busy and late 🙂🙂
1:05:06 reentry
1:08:20 parachute half deployed
1:09:08 parachute fully deployed
1:12:20 SPLASH DOWNNN
1:41:35 recovery
1:50:05 or 1:58:19 citizens or "astronauts" come out!!!

[FeelGoodOK]

Huge congrats to Inspiration4 and SpaceX teams! You are the best!!!

[prajaktakudalkar]

this is witnessing history! hearty congratulations to the entire spaceX team for achieving an incredible feat! wishing you many more successes in the future!

[chrisschaller]

Flawless. Congratulations to all engineers, mechanics, programmers. Everyone involved in this amazing machine.

[human]

What I love so much about this mission is that SpaceX put a lot of new coverages that never showed to us before. I.e : live feed inside the capsule during launch, re-entry, and splashdown.

[Milo-nzgf]

Outstanding Work for the Inspiration4 Crew and the entire SpaceX Team!

[kathyferguson]

I felt such excitement at this momentous splashdown...it reminded me of the same when I was a young girl (I'm 69) and the astronauts were our national heros. We now have heros again and they are our children. Thank you Dragon, Thank you SpaceX.

[TheMightyKinkle]

13:12 I love it how Chris is watching Spaceballs in space!

[LyricsFromCosmos]

God bless all the brilliant work of you, guys! No words, no words... just many tears! CONGRATULATIONS! A big hug from PORTUGAL!