New story in Science and Health from Time: Canada’s Last Remaining Ice Shelf Crumbles Due to Global Warming Canada’s Last Remaining Ice Shelf Crumbles Due to Global Warming

Much of Canada’s remaining intact ice shelf has broken apart into hulking iceberg islands thanks to a hot summer and global warming, scientists said.

Canada’s 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf on the northwestern edge of Ellesmere Island had been the country’s last intact ice shelf until the end of July when ice analyst Adrienne White of the Canadian Ice Service noticed that satellite photos showed that about 43% of it had broken off. She said it happened around July 30 or 31.

Two giant icebergs formed along with lots of smaller ones, and they have already started drifting away, White said. The biggest is nearly the size of Manhattan — 21 square miles (55 square kilometers) and 7 miles long (11.5 kilometers). They are 230 to 260 feet (70 to 80 meters) thick.

Read more: 2020 Is Our Last, Best Chance to Save the Planet

“This is a huge, huge block of ice,” White said. “If one of these is moving toward an oil rig, there’s nothing you can really do aside from move your oil rig.”

The 72-square mile (187 square kilometer) undulating white ice shelf of ridges and troughs dotted with blue meltwater had been larger than the District of Columbia but now is down to 41 square miles (106 square kilometers).

Temperatures from May to early August in the region have been 9 degrees (5 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1980 to 2010 average, University of Ottawa glaciology professor Luke Copland said. This is on top of an Arctic that already had been warming much faster than the rest of globe, with this region warming even faster.

“Without a doubt, it’s climate change,” Copland said, noting the ice shelf is melting from both hotter air above and warmer water below. “The Milne was very special,” he added. “It’s an amazingly pretty location.”

Ice shelves are hundreds to thousands of years old, thicker than long-term sea ice, but not as big and old as glaciers, Copland said.

Canada used to have a large continuous ice shelf across the northern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, but it has been breaking apart over the last decades because of man-made global warming, White said. By 2005 it was down to six remaining ice shelves but “the Milne was really the last complete ice shelf,” she said.

“There aren’t very many ice shelves around the Arctic anymore,” Copland said. “It seems we’ve lost pretty much all of them from northern Greenland and the Russian Arctic. There may be a few in a few protected fjords.”

New story in Science and Health from Time: Climate Change Could Cause More Annual Deaths Than Infectious Disease By 2100 Climate Change Could Cause More Annual Deaths Than Infectious Disease By 2100

In recent decades, tens of thousands of people around the globe have died as the result of extreme heat, and yet the phenomenon of deadly heat would be easy to miss. That may not be true much longer.

A new analysis published this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that, if left unchecked, climate change could drive temperatures up to the point where they would lead to 85 deaths per 100,000 people globally per year by the end of the century. That’s more than are currently killed by all infectious diseases across the globe.

“We’re doing a lot of things around the world that are improving healthcare rapidly,” says Solomon Hsiang, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the authors of the new paper. “Climate change would be a giant step backwards on that progress.”

The paper is formally a “working paper” and has not undergone peer review, but it quantifies a reality that researchers who study climate change have long understood. Humans already struggle to survive in extreme temperatures, and that challenge will only get worse as average global temperatures rise. Even today, many people—particularly older adults—are vulnerable. A 2015 heat wave in India and Pakistan, for example, killed more than 3,000 people.

The new research suggests temperature rise will become an increasingly significant strain on the health care system, forcing doctors to battle a surge in heat-related ailments over the coming decades.

Some places will handle those challenges better than others. Already, vulnerability to extreme heat isn’t equally distributed, with poor communities and poor countries more vulnerable to heat-related ailments than their wealthier counterparts. The new study shows how that inequality will continue with time: some of the worst-off places today could reach a death rate as high as 160 per 100,000 people. On the other extreme, countries that can afford to adapt and currently occupy cold climates—which, according to the study, are primarily northern European—are actually likely to see lower annual death rates thanks to warmer temperatures. Other wealthy countries will still face a spike in mortality, but their economic resources will help cushion the impact. “A lot of the pain for wealthy populations is going to be through their pocketbooks,” says Hsiang. “In poorer, hotter locations, people will die.”

The study has important technical and policy implications. For years, economists and policymakers have tried to determine a “social cost of carbon” that quantifies the economic value of preventing a ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The Obama administration calculated it at around $50; the Trump administration has put forth estimates suggesting it’s as low as $1.

This new study finds that the social cost of carbon is $37—for heat-related mortality alone. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When you consider the cost of hurricanes, floods and climate migration, as well as a slew of other challenges, the study suggests that the social cost of carbon is likely to be much higher and, therefore, the urgency to act much greater. These findings all underscore a familiar conclusion: acting now to address climate change will saves lives and dollars in the long run.

New story in Science and Health from Time: Scientists Are Learning to Read—and Change—Your Nightmares Scientists Are Learning to Read—and Change—Your Nightmares

The scariest dream my now-college-age daughter ever had was the one about the running legs—or, as they became known in our family, The Running Legs, almost audibly capitalized. She was in kindergarten at the time and the dream amounted to little more than an image of a pair of black tights, filled by an invisible lower body chasing her.

It was the first thing she mentioned when she got up in the morning and she brought it up again over breakfast—clearly distressed. We talked about it a bit and I asked her what she thought the legs would have done if they had caught her.

“Bite me,” she answered.

“With what?” I asked.

That made her laugh, but not so much that she didn’t also mention the dream to her teacher, who had her draw a picture of it and then talk through it together. The fear faded after that, but the memory did not.

Silly or not, childish or not, The Running Legs checked several boxes that would generally qualify it as a nightmare. It was recalled upon awakening—and may even have been the reason for the awakening. It caused distress the next day. It involved danger—in the case of nightmares, it’s most commonly some kind of physical aggression, a serious accident, a disease, or, yes, being chased.

Nightmares may also involve being the person who causes harm to other people. “Humans are social beings,” says professor Michael Schredl, a sleep researcher at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, and nightmares may be sign that a bit of the social code that keeps us in line during the day and is fundamental enough to who we are that it apparently operates even in our sleep. From the time we emerged as a species we have depended on our acceptance within a group for our very survival, and violating the rules of that group could mean banishment. “I think those nightmares point to that importance,” Schredl says.

It would be nicer for all of us if nightmares didn’t exist in the first place, but it’s hardly surprising that they do. If the sleeping brain is forever screening the sometimes absurdist movies that are our dreams, it’s no surprise that now and then it would choose a horror film. But there are open questions: why you have one on one night and not another; why some people suffer from them more than others; what the specific content of the bad dreams signifies.

Researchers have long worked to answer those questions and in recent years have succeeded in unraveling at least some of the mysteries. What’s more, they are developing new, often high-tech ways to observe the sleeping brain as nightmares play out and even read some specific elements of the storyline or at least the imagery. There may even be a way to step in and change the nightmare narrative—stimulating the brain to allow the dreamer to take control of the experience, all the while remaining asleep.

Nightmares do not strike us all equally. According to a 2017 study of U.K participants published in Social Psychology and Psychiatric Epidemiology, about 5% of the overall population experiences a nightmare at least once a week, which is sufficiently frequent to qualify as a diagnosable disorder. A larger share of the population—30% to 55%—has an average of one nightmare a month, according to a Hong Kong-based study published in the journal Sleep. And the American Society of Sleep Medicine reports that around 85% of us report at least the occasional nightmare, a finding confirmed by multiple studies.

Where Nightmares Come From

The seeds of future nightmares may be planted early in life, during what’s known as the “infantile amnesia” period, which lasts from birth to about age three and a half, and is a time of life during which virtually no enduring memories are formed. Infantile amnesia gets disrupted, however, if the child experiences significant trauma during that sensitive time-window—physical abuse, witnessing domestic violence, or being placed in rotating foster care with no consistent attachment figures, to name a few examples. This can lead to what psychologist Tore Nielsen, of the University of Montreal, dubbed the Stress Acceleration Hypothesis (SAH), in a 2017 paper published in Frontiers of Neurology. The idea behind SAH is that early adversity of these sorts can accelerate the development of skills that govern fear and crisis management—which are useful for the child, but come at a long-term cost.

“The trauma leads to brain changes that help the child adapt short-term,” says psychologist and dream researcher Louis-Philippe Marquis of the University of Montreal, who had Nielsen as a thesis adviser. “But they may facilitate nightmares and psychopathology later in life.”

According to the SAH hypothesis, the originating trauma doesn’t have to be out of the ordinary; merely the birth of a sibling in the infantile amnesia window can make someone more prone to nightmares. And no wonder: the first child goes from being the sole focus of parental attention to having to share that love—and the new arrival usually gets the majority of the care, simply because infants are so demanding. In his 2017 paper, Neilsen wrote that firstborn children had frightening dreams more than twice as frequently as last-born children, regardless of potential confounders like age, sex, and number of siblings.

Other, less traumatic factors can contribute to nightmares too. In a 2018 study of 1,216 subjects, Schredl found that simple daily stress is a powerful causative factor. “All kinds of stress increase nightmare frequency,” Schredl says. “There don’t need to be any unrecognized issues in the subconscious.”

Individual temperament may also be a factor in the occurrence of nightmares. Schredly has found that people who score higher on tests of empathy and sensitivity are more likely to pay for daytime stress with a sleep-time nightmare. Research by Bryrony Sheaves, a clinical psychologist at the University of Oxford specializing in, among other things, sleep disturbances, has connected nightmares to a painful triptych of temperamental tendencies: paranoia, frequent depersonalization, and hallucinations. Sheaves stresses that in all of these cases she is not describing clinical conditions: some people are more suspicious than others; some tend to feel depersonalized in moments of social stress like walking into a party filled with strangers or delivering a speech; in the case of hallucinations, Sheaves is describing mostly people who experience vivid dreamlike imagery while falling asleep or waking up—the so-called hypnagogic or hypnopompic states. In all of these people, nightmares are likelier to occur more frequently.

“In reality, there is not one single cause for nightmares for most people,” says Sheaves. “The exception for that is if they’re part of a wider PTSD issue.” Among people with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder—especially combat veterans and victims of sexual assault or other violence—anywhere from 71% to 96% report frequent nightmares, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Indeed, nightmares are one of the defining symptoms of the condition.

Just which parts of the brain serve as the projection booth for nightmares is uncertain. Marquis explains that the likeliest loci are the anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex. The anterior cingulate cortex plays a role in emotion, blood pressure, heart rate, morality and where we allocate our attention, all of which come into play during nightmares. The principal role of the hippocampus is to regulate and process memory—which helps vivid or traumatic experiences lived during the day or deeper in the past get replayed in dreams, especially in PTSD patients.

But the two biggest players in the cranial gang of four are the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. The amygdala is in what amounts to the basement of the brain, both physically (it is deeply buried, not far from the brain stem) and functionally (it’s where the demons are kept, especially fear, aggression, anger and sadness). When we’re awake, the prefrontal cortex keeps a close watch on what all those emotions are up to downstairs. But, “during sleep, the frontal areas of the brain are shut down and the brake that actively suppressed the emotions in the amygdala during the day does not work properly anymore,” says Stephanie Rek, a PhD student and clinical trainee studying sleep at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. When the brain signs off for the night, the monsters come out to play.

Learning to Read the Contents of Dreams—and Nightmares

As awful as nightmares can be, they aren’t necessarily always a bad thing. New research into the brain regions involved in nightmares has found that in some cases a dream-time scare may even have some adaptive value.

In a 2019 study published in the open access journal Human Brain Mapping, a team led by Virginie Sterpenich, senior researcher at the University of Geneva’s Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, recruited 89 subjects and had them keep a dream diary for one week, in which they reported the contents of their dreams and the associated emotions, including fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Later, those subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while looking at pictures of faces with what the researchers had determined were happy, funny, or menacing or frightening expressions. When looking at the frightening or menacing faces, subjects who reported fewer nightmares in their dream diary, showed fMRI activity in the insular and midcingulate cortices of the brain, which more or less mirrored that of people having bad dreams. In subjects who reported more nightmares, those brain regions were less reactive to the negative images—effectively shrugging them off. The implication, according to Sterpenich and her colleagues: bad dreams experienced in the safety of the bed can actually serve to help us better handle genuinely frightening or threatening episodes in the real world.

More experimental—and more tantalizing—is research being led by Tomoyasu Horikawa and Guohua Shen, both of the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Kyoto, Japan, which may make it possible to use fMRI scans to actually peek at the visual content of subjects’ dreams. The premise, which they explored in depth in a 2019 paper in PLOS Computational Biology, first involves machine-learning—teaching a deep neural network to recognize an encyclopedic collection of images including animals, airplanes, faces, trees, mailboxes, cars and on and on. The researchers then used an fMRI to read the visual cortex of human subjects as they looked at or were instructed to imagine the same objects. Subjects were also allowed to fall asleep in an fMRI machine, then were awakened during the hypnagogic state and asked what images they had been seeing in their half-dreams. The fMRI data from those mind-pictures were when coded to their responses.

Then, the resulting database was put to the test: Subjects were placed back in the fMRI while looking at or imagining particular images and their brain readings were then fed into the deep neural network which would try to understand and recreate the images. It was startlingly accurate.

The face of a tiger or the picture of a tree that the machine spit out in response to the brain reading might be fuzzy or sloppy or need to be turned this way or that before it became clear just what it was, but all the same, the machine read many of the subjects’ brains and even in a rough way, saw what it was seeing. It’s too early to say what practical effect such a mind-reading system could have, but with the assistance of a therapist, it could be used to help those with regular nightmares work through the content of the dreams, as well as to habituate and desensitize them to the imagery.

Learning How to Control Nightmares

Another type of new technology might have an even more direct effect on mitigating nightmares. Known as transcranial stimulation, it involves introducing low levels of low-frequency energy into the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. That has been experimentally shown to change ordinary dreaming into what’s known as lucid dreaming, most convincingly in a 2014 study published in Nature Neuroscience and led by Ursula Voss, a psychology professor at J.W. Goethe-University in Frankfurt Germany. In the lucid dream, the sleeping brain is aware that the experience is just a dream, can stand back from it and observe it like a third person and, in some cases, can take control of the narrative—turning around and chasing The Running Legs, say, instead of being chased by them. In Voss’s work, she and her team found that at key energy frequencies of 25 and 40 hertz, all three of those lucid dream states—awareness of the dream, a third-person perspective on it, and the ability to take control of it—could be achieved with greater frequency than among people who did not receive transcranial stimulation.

In a 2018 paper in the Journal of Sleep Research, an international team of scientists explored a number of lower-tech nightmare treatments now available. The paper, with 23 named co-authors, was the result of what Schredl describes as “the first nightmare conference worldwide,” and involved a sort of birds-eye view of the landscape of nightmare research. Based on their findings, the researchers agreed that one of the most powerful nightmare treatments is “desensitization and exposure,” in which patients are first asked to imagine the nightmare vividly and practice relaxation exercises, including steady breathing and alternately tensing and relaxing muscles throughout. Next, they are asked to imagine the nightmare and take no such therapeutic steps. The first exercise teaches them to take control of the experience, the second exposes them to the raw nightmare in a controlled setting, which, over time, can strip it of its power to cause distress.

Also effective, according to the 2018 study, is “image-rehearsal therapy” in which patients imagine the nightmare multiple times a day in a quiet and focused setting, but rescript it, giving it a different, happier ending in which, say, the tiger that’s chasing you turns into a kitten. It’s a simple, but apparently empowering method, with multiple studies in the 2010s showing that it can decrease nightmare frequency and severity—even among PTSD patients—and improve overall sleep quality. Cognitive-behavioral therapy in which people reframe certain beliefs about nightmares—for example, that the next day you will be haunted by memories of the experience—can also help diminish the shock and power of the dreams.

None of this will eliminate nightmares altogether. The brain is too creative and reactive and emotional a thing to serve up only good dreams. But our understanding of nightmares—and the technology to interpret and control them—is a new weapon in an old war. Dreaming itself may not change, but our response to it can.

New story in Science and Health from Time: Penguin Poop Spotted From Space Points to Previously Undiscovered Colonies in Antarctica Penguin Poop Spotted From Space Points to Previously Undiscovered Colonies in Antarctica

(BERLIN) — British scientists say there are more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than previously thought based on evidence of bird droppings spotted from space.

A study published Wednesday by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey counted 61 emperor penguin colonies dotted around the southernmost continent, 11 more than the number previously confirmed.

Scientists used images from Europe’s Sentinel-2 satellite mission to look for smudges on the ice that indicated large amounts of guano, or penguin poop.

The majestic emperor penguin breeds in remote areas where temperatures can drop as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit). Researchers have long relied on aerial photographs and satellites to spot colonies of the flightless marine birds.

Peter Fretwell, a British Antarctic Survey geographer and the study’s lead author, called the latest count “good news” but noted that the newly spotted colonies were small.

“(They) only take the overall population count up by 5-10% to just over half a million penguins or around 265,500 – 278,500 breeding pairs,” he said.

Emperor penguins are vulnerable to the loss of sea ice predicted to occur because of man-made global warming. Some researchers suggest the number of colonies could drop by more than 30% by the end of the century.

Some of the newly discovered colonies are located far offshore, on sea ice that has formed around grounded icebergs and which is particularly at risk of disappearing.

Yan Ropert-Coudert, an ecologist who wasn’t involved in the latest study, said that while satellite images are a powerful tool for tracking penguin colonies, large-scale explorations and counts on the ground are also needed whenever possible.

Reliable assessment of local and global populations are necessary for conservation bodies to decide what actions are needed to protect the species, said Ropert-Coudert, who heads the biological sciences section of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

New story in Science and Health from Time: It’s Time for American Leaders to Wake Up to the Threat of Climate Change for the Good of the Planet and Business It’s Time for American Leaders to Wake Up to the Threat of Climate Change for the Good of the Planet and Business

The coronavirus pandemic has worn out its welcome on Earth. Just try and find someone who’s not sick and tired of working from the basement, wearing a mask, bumping elbows in greeting or simply living with the worry of themselves or their family getting sick. And these inconveniences pale in comparison to the pain many have suffered from sickness or the loss of loved ones.

If we could have seen the pandemic coming and had the power to prevent it, of course, we would have. If we had that power but sat on our hands as millions became sick and died, that inaction would be unforgivable.

There is another problem that we know is coming, that we have the power to address, and yet which we continually do too little—or often nothing—to tackle. I’m talking about climate change.

Left unchecked, the impact of climate change will only further alter our world as we know it—reshaping our coastlines and the cities that sit on them, accelerating species extinction, devastating agriculture and causing famine, ravaging our economy and impacting everyone’s health.

Though often regarded as a hot potato in politics, one of the biggest points of opposition to addressing climate change is the cost. How can a world whose transportation and energy systems are so heavily rooted in burning hydrocarbons afford to scrap them and shift to other, cleaner forms of energy?

I approach it from the other direction, however: how can we afford not to?

Yes, the looming cost to human life and the natural world are paramount and merit immediate and sustained commitment to long-term action. For those who also worry about the economics of tackling climate change, consider this: Goldman Sachs recently estimated that there is $16 trillion to be made in just the next 10 years from new investments in renewable energy. Furthermore, if the United States committed to help keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius, this would create between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in yearly investments in renewable energy.

At a time when the global pandemic has dealt a mighty blow to the world’s economy, those kinds of numbers should be music to our ears. Why would we not embrace the enormous economic benefits and job creation of investing in next generation transportation and renewable energy systems?

As a Republican governor of the 7^th largest state and a top-25 global economy, I was proud to champion energy and environmental policies that helped Ohio reduce its carbon emissions by almost 30 percent between 2005 and 2014—all while achieving strong job creation and still managing major new investments in natural gas from shale with regulations that surpassed the federal government’s.

Our approach was balanced, reasonable and productive, with a focus on encouraging energy investments while also protecting public health and the environment—and preserving the Ohio’s renewable energy standard. Thanks to the state’s support for renewable energy, thousands of new jobs were created by companies like Amazon and Facebook which, like many tech companies, are committed to renewable energy use.

The time has come for people who understand the need to be good stewards of our environment—and who can appreciate the value of a global economic boost—to roll up their sleeves and push for the switch to renewable energy and clean transportation. Traditional renewable energy sources like solar and wind have stood the test of time and merit greater investment and deployment. Clean natural gas can be the bridge as we ramp up more renewables and make the final break from carbon-intensive fuels. We also need to support research into new green energy technologies and bring these to market.

I joined with former Secretary of State John Kerry and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger behind an effort called “World War Zero” to help bring together a group of unlikely allies – Democrats, Republicans and independents, scientists, military leaders, business leaders, diplomats, entertainers, and ordinary people from all walks of life – to mobilize, speak up, and tackle climate change together. And to find new ways of helping people appreciate the need to address the problem.

Seeing the economic benefits of renewable energy investments at a time of a global recession might not be an angle that first comes to mind. But tough problems merit different approaches and demand that we take advantage of the opportunities when they arise—like now.

Just like America’s shift to a wartime footing in the 1940s helped end the Great Depression, the manufacturing revolution and global job creation that would be ushered in by the transition to a clean energy economy could deal critical blows to two dragons at once: climate change and the economic downturn. Let your voice be heard and make clear to those who lead that we cannot waste this opportunity.

New story in Science and Health from Time: Boomer and Bust: Millennials and Their Younger Siblings Now the New U.S. Majority Boomer and Bust: Millennials and Their Younger Siblings Now the New U.S. Majority

(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Sorry, boomers. Millennials and their younger siblings and children now make up a majority of the U.S. population.

A new analysis by the Brookings Institution shows that 50.7% of U.S. residents were under age 40, as of July 2019.

The Brookings’ analysis of population estimates released this summer by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the combined millennial, Generation Z and younger generations numbered 166 million people. The combined Generation X, baby boomer, and older cohorts represented 162 million U.S. residents.

“To many Americans—especially baby boomers themselves—this news may come as a shock. For them, the term “millennial” has been associated with a youthful, often negative, vibe in terms of habits, ideology, and politics,” William Frey, a senior fellow at Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program, wrote in the analysis. “Now, the oldest millennial is 39, and with their numbers exceeding those of baby boomers, the millennial generation is poised to take over influential roles in business and government.”

Those under age 40 are more diverse than the older cohorts, with almost half identifying as being part of a racial or ethnic minority. Past surveys show that the younger generations split from the older generations on issues such as immigration reform, criminal justice reform and environmental protection, and the pandemic and recent racial justice protests are likely to galvanize the younger groups to promote an array of progressive causes, Frey wrote.

Millennials typically are defined as being born between 1981 and 1996. Baby boomers, long considered a primary driver of demographic and social change in the U.S. because of their large numbers, were born between the end of World War II and the arrival of the Beatles in the U.S. in 1964.

Squeezed between the boomers and millennials, Generation Xers were born in the late 1960s and 1970s. Members of Generation Z were born after 1996.

New story in Science and Health from Time: SpaceX Dragon Capsule With NASA Astronauts Makes Successful Splashdown SpaceX Dragon Capsule With NASA Astronauts Makes Successful Splashdown

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — Two NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday in a dramatic, retro-style splashdown, their capsule parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico to close out an unprecedented test flight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.

It was the first splashdown by U.S. astronauts in 45 years, with the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit. The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year.

Test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode the SpaceX Dragon capsule back to Earth less than a day after departing the International Space Station and two months after blasting off from Florida. The capsule parachuted into the calm gulf waters about 40 miles off the coast of Pensacola, hundreds of miles from Tropical Storm Isaias pounding Florida’s Atlantic coast.

“Welcome back to planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” said Mission Control from SpaceX headquarters.

“It was truly our honor and privilege,” replied Hurley.

The astronauts’ ride home in the capsule dubbed Endeavour was fast, bumpy and hot, at least on the outside.

The spacecraft went from a screaming orbital speed of 17,500 mph (28,000 kph) to 350 mph (560 kph) during atmospheric reentry, and finally to 15 mph (24 kph) at splashdown. Peak heating during descent was 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,900 degrees Celsius). The anticipated top G forces felt by the crew: four to five times the force of Earth’s gravity.

“Endeavour has you loud and clear,” Hurley radioed following a brief communication blackout caused by the heat of atmospheric entry.

A SpaceX recovery ship with more than 40 staff, including doctors and nurses, moved in quickly following splashdown and lifted the 15-foot capsule onto its deck. Two smaller, faster boats arrived first at the capsule while it was slowly bobbing upright in the water. To keep the returning astronauts safe in the pandemic, the recovery crew quarantined for two weeks and were tested for the coronavirus.

After medical exams, the astronauts were expected to fly home to Houston for a reunion with their wives and sons.

The last time NASA astronauts returned from space to water was on July 24, 1975, in the Pacific, the scene of most splashdowns, to end a joint U.S.-Soviet mission known as Apollo-Soyuz. The Mercury and Gemini crews in the early to mid-1960s parachuted into the Atlantic, while most of the later Apollo capsules hit the Pacific. The lone Russian “splashdown” was in 1976 on a partially frozen lake amid a blizzard following an aborted mission; the harrowing recovery took hours.

SpaceX made history with this mission, which launched May 30 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It was the first time a private company launched people into orbit and also the first launch of NASA astronauts from home turf in nearly a decade. Hurley came full circle, serving as pilot of NASA’s last space shuttle flight in 2011 and the commander of this SpaceX flight.

Musk monitored the descent and splashdown from SpaceX Mission Control in Hawthorne, California.

NASA turned to SpaceX and also Boeing to build capsules and ferry astronauts to and from the space station, following the retirement of the shuttles. Until Hurley and Behnken rocketed into orbit, NASA astronauts relied on Russian rockets. SpaceX already had experience hauling cargo to the space station, bringing those capsules back to a Pacific splashdown.

“This is the next era in human spaceflight where NASA gets to be the customer,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said from Johnson Space Center in Houston shortly before the astronauts’ return.

SpaceX needs six weeks to inspect the capsule before launching the next crew around the end of September. This next mission of four astronauts will spend a full six months aboard the space station. Hurley and Behnken’s capsule will be refurbished for another flight next spring. A Houston company run by a former NASA official, meanwhile, has partnered with SpaceX to send three customers to the space station in fall 2021.

Boeing doesn’t expect to launch its first crew until next year. The company encountered significant software problems in the debut of its Starliner capsule, with no one aboard, last year. Its capsules will touch down in the U.S. Southwest desert.

By beating Boeing, SpaceX laid claim to a small U.S. flag left at the space station by Hurley and the rest of the last shuttle crew. The flag — which also flew on the first shuttle flight — was carefully packed aboard the Dragon for the homecoming.

Also on board: a toy dinosaur named Tremor, sent into space by the astronauts’ young sons.

The boys recorded a wake-up call for their fathers Sunday morning, urging them to “rise and shine” and “we can’t wait to see you.”

“Don’t worry, you can sleep in tomorrow,” said Behnken’s 6-year-old son Theo, who was promised a puppy after the flight. “Hurry home so we can go get my dog.”

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