Context: Recently, the SpaceX Dragon Capsule came down in the Gulf of Mexico with the crew, successfully completing its journey back to Earth from the International Space Station.
Key Points

• It was the first splashdown by U.S. astronauts in 45 years, with the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit.
• The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year.
• The last time NASA astronauts returned from space to water was on 24th July 1975, in the Pacific to end a joint USA-Soviet mission known as the Apollo-Soyuz.
• The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the first spaceflight to include two participating nations working together with their own national spacecraft.
• The Americans sent up an Apollo command module, while the Soviet launched a Soyuz spacecraft.

About Space X Crew Dragon

• It is a reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX.
• SpaceX is a private company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. Its headquarters is located in Hawthorne, California (USA).
• It is the fifth class of the USA spacecraft to take human beings into orbit, after the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.
• The rocket Falcon 9 was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on 31st May 2020 and carried the spaceship into the orbit.
• The whole mission was carried out under the Demo-2 Mission of NASA and SpaceX.

Significance

• It clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch and possible tourist flights from 2021.
• SpaceX has now become the first private company to send humans to orbit who have spent more than two months on the space station.
• The landmark mission marked the first time the USA space agency launched humans from American soil since its shuttle program retired in 2011.
• Since then, the USA has relied on Russia's space program to launch its astronauts to the space station.