SpaceX Dragon Spaceship splashes back down in Florida – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by Evgenyiqw
After almost six months of performing research and science on the International Space Station (ISS), four astronauts have safely returned to Earth.
At 5:47 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, astronauts from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Roscomos, and Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA, along with astronaut Andreas Mogensen of the ESA, and astronaut Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA, safely descended in a Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
Thermal cameras recorded the entire procedure as the recovery team swiftly reached the capsule. The crew flew to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston after landing, where they were met by loved ones.
“After more than six months aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 has safely returned home,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This international crew showed that space unites us all. It’s clear that we can do more – we can learn more – when we work together. The science experiments conducted during their time in space will help prepare for NASA’s bold missions at the Moon, Mars, and beyond, all while benefitting humanity here on Earth.”
As part of Expedition 70, the seventh commercial crew rotation for NASA spent 199 days in low-Earth orbit on the International Space Station. On August 26, 2023, at 3:27 a.m. EDT, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew-7 mission blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After Dragon successfully docked to the space-facing port of the Harmony module approximately thirty hours earlier, Crew-7 started their journey home on Monday, March 11, at 11:20 a.m. EDT, according to NASA.
For the first time, astronauts from every one of NASA’s foreign partners—including those from Europe, Japan, and Russia—launched to the foreign Space Station (ISS) using SpaceX. A minimum of two NASA astronauts have participated in commercial crew missions before.
The four-person multinational crew made 3,184 orbits of the Earth and 84,434,094 miles throughout their mission, according to NASA.
Included in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the Crew-7 flight returns to Earth following NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 launch, which docked to the station on March 5 to begin a second science mission.
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Melissa’s career in writing started more than 20 years ago. Today, she lives in South Florida with her husband and two boys.
