Four crew members returned safely from a five-month science mission on the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that splashed down off Florida’s Gulf coast.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four crew members, including two NASA astronauts, a Japanese astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut, splashed safely off Florida’s Gulf coast on Saturday after a five-month science mission on the International Space Station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft was undocked from the space station early on Saturday morning. They re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, enduring frictional heat that sent temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit before two sets of parachutes deployed to brake the capsule’s descent. The mission was SpaceX’s sixth crewed flight for NASA since May 2020, restoring crewed launches from American soil after nearly a decade of U.S. dependence on Russia’s Soyuz program for space station flights. The Crew-5 team included the first Russian to fly on an American spacecraft in 20 years, and the first Native American woman sent into orbit.
