Since Crew Dragon’s debut, SpaceX has flown more astronauts than anyone

After 170 days in space, four astronauts splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday.

After two days of delays, the Crew Dragon Freedom returned to Earth off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. Dragon's descent through Earth's atmosphere appeared to be nominal, with two drogue parachutes deployed on schedule, followed by four clean main parachutes, allowing Dragon to splash down at a rate of 25 km per hour.

"SpaceX, from Freedom, thank you for an incredible ride up to space and an incredible ride home," said the NASA commander after landing.

NASA astronauts Bob and Jessica Watkins, as well as European Space Agency astronauts, were on the mission. After landing, the vehicle was secured by two "fast boats" which took it to the Megan recovery ship.

Crew-4 was the fourth mission flown by the company. Four people were sent to the space station by the Crew-5 mission. The Crew Dragon has carried 30 people into space.

In less than two years, SpaceX has surpassed the total number of astronauts launched into space by China, whose human spaceflight program dates back to 2003; and in the time Crew Dragon has been operational, it has exceeded the total number of people flown into space by the Russians.

NASA officials have been very pleased with the performance of the vehicle over the last two years, despite the fact that it had a few flaws. Since the space shuttle's retirement, the United States had lost its ability to send people into space. If Dragon hadn't been available, NASA would have had to rely on Russia for crew transport.

Crew-5 was the last launch of the Dragon vehicle, but there will be two missions in the first quarter of 2020. The launch of Crew 6 is planned for February, and will be commanded by NASA Astronaut Steve Bowen. There will be two mission specialists, a Russian and an Arab.

The goal of Polaris Dawn is to perform the world's first private Eva and conduct research to advance human spaceflight. Along with him will be pilot Scott Poteet and two mission specialists. They will be the first people to fly in space.