Washington: Four astronauts from different countries returned to Earth on Saturday after spending almost five months at the international space station and safely landing in a SpaceX capsule.
The spacecraft that American astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, the Japanese Takuya Oneishi and the Russian Kosmonaut Kirill Peskov transported, splashed local time along the coast of California at 8:44 am.
Their return marks the end of the 10th Crew Rotation Mission to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which was set up to follow the era of the Space Shuttle by working together with the private industry.
The Dragon Capsule of Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company released on Friday from the International Space Station (ISS).
When these capsules re -introduce the atmosphere of the earth, according to NASA, they heat up to 1,925 Celsius.
Atmospheric return – then the use of huge parachutes when the capsule comes closer to the earth – slows its speed of 28,100 kilometers per hour to just over 25 kilometers per hour.
After the capsule was splashed, it was found by a SpaceX ship and hoisted on board. Only then could the astronauts breathe in the air for the first time in months.
The crew will now fly to Houston to be reunited with their families.
They carried out countless scientific experiments during their time at the space station, including studying plant growth, how cells react to gravity and the effect of micrsweerkracht on human eyes.
“Bittersweete” returns
NASA -ancanding manager Sean Duffy praised the successful mission.
“Our crew missions are the building blocks for long-term, human exploration, which push the limits of what is possible,” he said in a NASA statement.
McClain said her farewell to the ISS was “bittersweet” because she might never return.
“Every day this mission depends on people from all over the world,” she wrote on X.
“It depends on government and commercial entities, it depends on all political parties and it depends on the deployment for an unchanged goal for many years and decades.”
NASA said last month that it would lose about 20 percent of his staff – around 3,900 employees – under cuts of the major effort of US President Donald Trump to reduce the federal workforce.
Trump has meanwhile prioritized crew missions for the moon and mars.
The launch of the Crew-10 in March left two American astronauts back home after they unexpectedly on board the space station for nine months.
When they were launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams only had to spend eight days in space on a test of the first crew of the Boeing Starliner.
However, the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was considered unsuitable to fly back, making them in space for an indefinite period of time.
NASA announced this week that Wilmore has decided to retire after 25 years of service at the US Space Agency.
Last week the American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, the Japanese Kimiya Yui and Russian Kosmonaut Oleg Platonov boarded the ISS for a six -month mission.
