This afternoon, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to start their journey back to Earth inside SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon, bringing an end to their historic flight to the International Space Station. If all goes to plan, the two will splash down in the Crew Dragon off the western coast of Florida on Sunday afternoon.
Getting back to Earth from orbit is no easy task, and the two astronauts have a long trip ahead of them before they’re back on solid ground. Once Behnken and Hurley undock from the space station, they’ll spend the next 18 hours in orbit, slowly distancing themselves from the ISS, before making the dive into Earth’s atmosphere. That begins a harrowing trip down to the surface, as the Crew Dragon…