4 Astronauts Splash Down in Gulf of Mexico

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX has delivered four astronauts back to Earth, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot. The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida Panhandle early Sunday, just 6 1/2 hours after departing the International Space Station. The astronauts, three American and one Japanese, spent nearly six months at the orbiting lab. They flew back in the same capsule in which they launched from Florida in November. SpaceX delayed their homecoming four days because of high offshore wind. Managers switched to a predawn splashdown to take advantage of calm weather.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

Filed Under: NASA, SpaceX

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