The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

NASA and SpaceX now plan to bring Crew-1 astronauts home in the predawn darkness Sunday

The mission would mark the first nighttime splashdown of a crewed spacecraft since Apollo 8 in 1968.

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April 30, 2021 at 5:20 p.m. EDT
SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft lands in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 2. NASA on Friday said the next splashdown, of the Crew-1 astronauts who've spent six months aboard the space station, is now scheduled for 2:57 a.m. Sunday, the first time since 1968 that a space capsule will splash down in the dark. (Bill Ingalls/AP)
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The return of a quartet of astronauts from the International Space Station was going to be dramatic enough — a fiery flight through the thickening atmosphere, the deployment of parachutes and then the gentle touchdown in the ocean.

But now NASA has set the splashdown of the Crew-1 astronauts to take place under the cover of darkness in the middle of the night.