While docked at the ISS, humans entered the vehicle for the first time in space . It remained docked with the station until Thursday, at which point the hatch was closed and locked and the capsule was readied for its return. At 11:32 p.m. PT, it released a set of hooks from the ISS and slowly drifted away from the space laboratory with two short thruster firings. A dummy, lovingly known as Ripley and dressed in SpaceX's astronaut gear and a suite of sensors, was its lone crew member. The Crew Dragon drifts away from the ISS. Screenshot of NASA TV "Fifty years after humans landed on the moon for the first time, America has driven a golden spike on the trail to new space exploration feats through the work of our commercial partner SpaceX and all the talented and dedicated flight controllers at NASA and our international partners," said Anne McClain, NASA flight engineer currently stationed at the ISS, as the capsule drifted away. Five hours later, when it was safely away from the ISS, Crew Dragon jettisoned its lower trunk section to burn up in space. At 4:52 a.m. PT, the capsule's thrusters fired once more, starting a 15-minute "deorbit burn," slowing the craft enough to fall back to Earth. Its biggest challenge was yet to come: atmospheric re-entry. The forces exerted on the capsule as it blazed a trail through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds had SpaceX CEO Elon Musk concerned during the week. Although his team had run hundreds of simulations, the unusual shape of the spacecraft meant it might roll or spin as it dropped from space to sea. Yet, when the moment arrived, the spacecraft showed no signs of a rickety descent, eventually deploying its quad-parachute system and safely splashing down in the Atlantic some 280 miles ( about 450 kilometers) from its original launching spot at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule's splashdown was attended by SpaceX's recovery vessel "Go Searcher," a ship equipped to pluck it from the roiling ocean waves and carry it back to shore. Dragon's drogue parachutes