By OLIVER JIA

According to ABC News, SpaceX’s new crew capsule passed its test with an old-fashioned splashdown in the Atlantic on Friday. Before this test, the capsule already made the trip to the International Space Station for six days.

NASA televised the return live, showing the red and white parachutes popping open.

“I am so surprised and excited,” said Benji Reed, SpaceX’s director of crew mission management.

This was the first time in a half century that a capsule designed for astronauts returned from space by dropping into the Atlantic. Splashdown was the final hurdle of SpaceX’s test flight on Friday morning. However, the company’s purpose is fly astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the next flight during the summer.

Boeing also planned to launch its Starliner capsule without a crew on the next month. Boeing explained that it probably would fly astronauts in August. The Starliner is designed to land on land. 

Space station astronaut David Saint-Jacques from Canada was the first to enter the Dragon capsule and the last to leave this week.

NASA awarded the first contracts to SpaceX and Boeing in 2014. SpaceX stated that it still need to work and fix some problems on this project.