Crew Dragon lands safely, despite one parachute inflating slowly [Updated]

Enlarge / NASA Television of the Crew-2 landing shows three main parachutes deployed, with a fourth one lagging behind. (credit: NASA TV)

11:30pm ET Monday update: Crew Dragon Endeavour safely splashed down into the Northern Gulf of Mexico on Monday evening, just south of Pensacola, Florida. The water landing capped a successful 199-day mission to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft's return to Earth seemed nominal up until four minutes before splashdown, when the vehicle's main parachutes deployed. Three of the four parachutes came out nominally, but inflation of the fourth parachute was delayed by a fraction of a minute. Despite this, the commentators on the NASA-SpaceX livestream indicated that the fourth parachute's inflation rate was normal, and the spacecraft's descent speed nominal.

The crew emerged from the spacecraft less than an hour later, onboard a recovery ship, no worse for wear. Another Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA's Crew-3 mission, is set to launch from Florida in less than two days. It seems possible that this mission could be delayed due to the parachute issue observed Monday night.

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