Watch the SpaceX Dragon capsule reenter the Earth’s atmosphere

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts from the International Space Station, successfully returned to Earth early Tuesday morning.

At 5:47 a.m. EDT, the Dragon Endurance capsule touched down into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, with NASA’s Space X Crew-7 on board. According to a map shared by NASA on social media, people from around the U.S. were able to catch a glimpse of the capsule during its return from orbit around Earth.

And many people took advantage of this amazing opportunity to capture the capsule streaking across the sky in the wee hours of the morning on video and share their clips on social media.

“Okay…that was awesome,” Michael Seger, a meteorologist from Tulsa, Oklahoma, shared on X with a video of Dragon Endurance flying over Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

People in New Orleans had a few moments to catch the spectacular site, too. Photographer Paul Morse shared an incredible video of the capsule flying over the city skyline, giving it the appearance of a shining comet.

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NASA’s International Space Station X account shared a close-up video of the capsule gliding down to the Gulf of Mexico on four parachutes to welcome the four astronauts home.

For the last six months, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov lived on the International Space Station, where they conducted more than 200 research experiments on plant life, medical science and more, including how spaceflight affects the human body’s immune system.

The crew’s return to Earth from space took them from their 17,500-mph orbit around Earth through the planet’s atmosphere to help slow down the craft enough where the parachutes to deploy and bring the capsule to a gentle touchdown on the water.

Crew members from the U.S. Coast Guard assisted NASA and SpaceX with the retrieval of the Dragon Endurance capsule and the crew.

If you want to watch the complete media coverage of this morning’s Space X Dragon Endurance’s return to Earth, you can catch the 2.5 hour video on NASA’s official YouTube Channel.

Following touchdown and recovery, NASA released photos of the Crew 7 team all looking healthy, happy to be home and on their way to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to reunite with their families and get a full medical checkup by NASA officials.

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Congratulations to the SpaceX Crew 7 for your successful mission and welcome home!