Astronauts return to Earth with Pacific splashdown following 5-month ISS mission

Four crew members who flew to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this 12 months to alleviate two astronauts who have been left stranded by a beleaguered house capsule returned to Earth on Saturday. 

NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, together with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, splashed down within the Pacific off the coast of Southern California on Saturday morning at 11:33 a.m. ET in a SpaceX capsule. 

It was the primary Pacific splashdown for NASA in 50 years, and the third for SpaceX with individuals on board. 

NASA astronauts final splashed down within the Pacific in 1975, throughout the Apollo-Soyuz mission, the primary crewed worldwide house mission that concerned Americans and Soviets. 

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The crew launched in March, changing Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been left caught on the house station for 9 months on what was meant to be a week-long mission after the Boeing Starliner they arrived in suffered thruster issues and helium leaks.

NASA concluded returning them to Earth within the capsule was too dangerous, so the Starliner flew again crewless, and Wilmore and Williams got here residence in a SpaceX capsule in March after their replacements arrived. 

Wilmore introduced his retirement after 25 years with NASA this week. 

“We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together,” McClain stated earlier than leaving the house station on Friday, mentioning “some tumultuous times on Earth.” 

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She stated she was trying ahead to “doing nothing for a couple of days” as soon as again residence, and her crewmates have been enthusiastic about scorching showers and burgers. 

Earlier this 12 months, SpaceX determined to modify their splashdowns from Florida to California to scale back the danger of particles falling on populated areas. 

After exiting the spacecraft, the crew obtained medical checks earlier than being flown by way of helicopter to fulfill up with a NASA plane sure for Houston.

“Overall, the mission went great, glad to have the crew back,” Steve Stich, supervisor of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, stated in a press convention after splashdown. “SpaceX did a great job of recovering the crew again on the West Coast.”

Dina Contella, deputy supervisor for NASA’s International Space Station program, added that she was “pretty happy to see the Crew 10 team back on Earth. They looked great, and they are doing great.”

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She famous the crew had orbited the Earth 2,368 instances and traveled greater than 63 million miles throughout their 146 days on the house station.