SpaceX crew returns to Earth after historic mission | BBC News

hatch has opened I'm hoping you can see the same pictures that we can I can it's been really exciting they've just been rinsing down the outside of the spacecraft to make sure it's uh got no noxious gases and liquids on it ready for the crew to come out right so Dr Simeon Barber from the space scientist the open University and what the pictures that we're seeing now is this feed from SpaceX and is that somebody has gone into the capsule to talk them through procedures presumably yeah that that is uh someone literally poking their head through the hatch and saying uh welcome good morning um welcome to Florida and uh yeah enjoy that fresh air so the first person I I'm told that they're meant to go to as soon as they get out is the uh the medical uh Team I think they call it a flight surgeon don't they on board that ship and they they're going to be needed to to be checked out sort of an initial check but before they go into all those complicated checks that we were talking about uh in terms of all of the the looking at what has happened to their bodies after all that exposure to radiation and the like up there so talk us through what will be happening uh once they emerge yeah that's right so they they don't be surprised if we see them being helped out of the spacecraft because they're in their suits which are designed for um for for use in vacuum um and they won't have their their bodies and Joints won't have been used to feeling load on them because of the they you know very low gravity environment they've been in and so you know just just walking and and wearing bearing weight will feel strange the first few moments so they may be assisted and then yeah they'll go through their initial checkout um but they've been wearing as you say this this whole Suite of kind of medical experiments and kit that they've been um sampling their bodies with we heard about them putting tiny cameras um up their nose which sounds particularly unpleasant um to understand the effect of the um the space environment on their Airwaves so lots of data to um to look at in the long term but for now I think it's just Elation to be back down on Earth yes one of them has an implant don't they um I I I'm not too sure about that I don't I don't know I I'm not across that I'm afraid okay I'm sure I heard somebody earlier talking about how maybe one of them had an implant so this is really you know very in invasive stuff isn't it this testing it goes to a different level here we go they are they're waving at the camera looking very happy very pleased with themselves they are very pleased that it all has gone so very well oh yeah it's very important that we get a photo before they come out um and just to say um Simeon this has been so successful this flight hasn't it and just talk us through all the first I mean this is the first space walk wasn't it by non-government astronauts and that in itself is something but there's so many other firsts on this Mission aren't there yeah this this Mission has has set a whole um new standard for private space flight so it's gone higher than the um Space X has ever taken astronauts before um it actually went up three times higher than the the orbit of the International Space Station so that it could dip into the radiation belts to understand the effect of that on the human body um it then came down a little bit in orbit and then performed this most amazing space flight in which all four astronauts were actually exposed to the vacuum environment two of them stayed inside the craft and two took their turns and coming out having a look at the Earth you know just just the most amazing site we saw saw all this in live video and they also were testing the suits so we saw them moving their arms and doing kind of strange strange dances and and movements with their arms checking the mobility of their suits and what what really has made this possible is that the spacecraft we see there that they're sitting in now the capsule will be reused again and actually it's the exact capsule that Jared isman the the funer of this Mission and the commander that we saw on the shot just now it's the same craft he flew in exactly three years ago to the day to the day and it will be recommissioned now for a future flight yeah it's extraordinary that isn't it because of what that capsule has gone through the heat it's been exposed to and as you were saying all those um uh you know gases and everything that's on the outside of it that it will still be viable and we should mention who is on board Jared isaacman as this billionaire he's he's the only one actually who's been in space before isn't he that's right there was talk about this being a rookie crew which is technically correct but they've gone through an amazing amount of training to to you know to to make them um able to do this so there's um an ex um kind of air force test pilot that's Scott and then Sarah and Anna are SpaceX employees who previously been operating these space missions from the ground and who better to then go into space and actually operate the mission from the the craft itself than people who've previously been responsible for for operating from ground so we've we've seen you know a really um groundbreaking Mission that's gone incredibly smoothly and has been filmed for us all to watch it's been like a 5day movie to watch for me for you yeah yes so um we should say yeah Sarah Gillis so this is the SpaceX engineer senior engineer who did The Space Walk with Jared isaacman um she's trained people to do these things hasn't she herself and so nice for her to be able to to finally do it really for in real you know for herself I suppose yeah absolutely um so you know who better now who who's better positioned to to train a future generation of astronauts and you know the amazing thing about s is that she first joined um SpaceX as an intern so you know what a what an amazing story this is about um how SpaceX has kind of opened up the possibility of of humans going into space in a very different way to what we've seen in the past when it's been done through National agencies yeah and there we go we've seen the first one of them take their first steps sort of tentative steps and perhaps a little bit awkward in those uh big suits that they have on emerging from that capsule but waving and smiling huge smile uh there as they are so pleased to be back uh touching well they're on a vessel aren't they not on Solid Ground yet but they'll they're on this vessel and then I understand they're going to be taken by helicopter uh back to uh their well to go and have all those test DS of course and then to go and be reunited with their friends and family um so it takes quite a long time to get them all out doesn't it just a a very slow process I suppose as you say you know their bodies will be feeling very strange right now that's right and um you know this is this is a professional operation so it's you know it's it's kind of like getting off a plane but not quite the same you know you you're you responsible for this spacecraft you want to make sure that it's in you you leave it healthy um it needs shutting down correctly we're seeing just there the the control panels and here they are yeah yeah standing perfectly well I mean 5 days doesn't sound like a huge amount of time but in terms of the the being weightless for those 5 days just exactly what does that do to your body um the thing I like most is I heard that it stops your your joints aching so with my football as knees I think I'd quite like that but effectively you're not bearing load yeah and that that's that actually means that you you know your muscles stop working in the same way and one of the reasons for this flight is to kind of understand how that does affect um human bodies so if you're not exercising every day you tend to lose that muscle mass as we know on Earth but when you're not even working against the forces of gravity then the effect is much more severe so spacex's vision is for kind of long-term missions you know to the Moon to Mars This is the first kind of baby steps there um you almost literally as as we walk seeing them walking across there yeah all of this is building up that that kind of knowledge base of what it would be like to to do a long-term space flight and how affects the human body yes because when they're in the International Space Station they have to exercise for at least two hours a day isn't it and when we say exercise I mean it is strange kind of exercise isn't it when you're weightless yeah so it's it's kind of against resistance machines um you know like like you'd see in a gym I guess you know on a on a bike or or um you know that kind of thing where you you actively working in against resistance to to put um loads into your joints and to keep them keep them active keep the muscles strong so this is the last one emerging now um they are all out they are all walking around quite easily big hugs big smiles everybody waving there's nobody seems to be having any really obvious uh physical challenge at the moment they're looking good aren't they and and that's Testament I guess to their training to their Fitness um the ergonomics of the of the Craft um yeah looked a little grubby so they'll clean that up and that will go again I'm sure yeah little grubby is putting it mildly and now off to to the to do all of these tests and first of all to to meet the the flight surgeon and that um and that is really I suppose that marks the end this is the the the the the mission is completed Now isn't it in terms of um the actual Mission itself but it's there is going to be so long for them analyzing all of this data that they've brought back and and having all of these tests done on them physically how long are they monitored physically for now after this to because that's a large part of this isn't it talking about what we were saying earlier about the impact of the radiation on their bodies and everything else how long will they be monitored now I think they'll be monitored in an ongoing process now so as you said there the initial checks just to check everyone everyone's okay which which they certainly look fine from here um and then over the coming days and weeks they'll be looking how the body reac climatized itself to to life on Earth um you know in the the gravity environment and the breathing environment we have here it is the end of the mission but there are three missions in this series and and people I think will already start looking forward to the the next two we don't really know the thought of people into space and and the word Mars Mars yes so um Elon musk's vision is that um this this kind of space technology could put humans on the moon to have a kind of a research base but to use that as a stepping turnone to develop the Technologies which would in his words build a city on Mars um lots and lots of technical challenges there and Technologies to develop there are also some wider issues such as um what would be the impact of putting humans on Mars um just recently we we've had discoveries from NASA that there are huge amounts of water trapped deep inside the uh Martian crust and this has implications for how they may have been life on the surface of Mars potentially which certainly increases that possibility so there will be lots of um care needed before we start sending humans to Mars but you know these are important steps on that Journey okay well thank you so much um for talking us through all of that for being with us as that mission uh came to the came to an end there Dr Simeon barar from the open University really good to have you with us so as you see all four astronauts have now emerged from that uh that capsule which is splashed down off the coast of Florida uh and they are going on to have all those tests different tests done on their bodies