4 space station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a fast SpaceX flight house.
Their capsule splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico simply off the Florida coast close to Tampa.
The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent 5 months on the Worldwide House Station, arriving last October. Moreover dodging space junk, the astronauts needed to cope with a pair of leaking Russian capsules docked to the orbiting outpost and the urgent delivery of a replacement craft for the station’s different crew members.
Led by NASA’s Nicole Mann, the primary Native American lady to fly in space, the astronauts checked out of the station early Saturday morning. Lower than 19 hours later, their Dragon capsule was bobbing within the sea as they awaited pickup.
Earlier within the week, high wind and waves within the splashdown zones stored them on the station a number of additional days. Their replacements arrived greater than every week in the past.
“That was one heck of a experience,” Mann radioed moments after splashdown. “We’re completely satisfied to be house.”
Mann, a member of Northern California’s Wailacki of the Spherical Valley Indian Tribes, mentioned she could not wait to really feel the wind on her face, scent contemporary grass and luxuriate in some scrumptious Earth meals.
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The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft is seen because it lands with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina onboard within the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Fla, Saturday, March 11, 2023. The group are returning after a five-month mission within the Worldwide House Station. Credit score: Keegan Barber/NASA by way of AP
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On this picture from video made obtainable by NASA, a SpaceX capsule, slowed by parachutes, approaches the floor of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off Tampa, Fla., because it returns to Earth with Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann from NASA, and Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) after a five-month mission within the Worldwide House Station, on Saturday, March 11, 2023. Credit score: NASA by way of AP
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SpaceX astronauts, from row from left, Josh Cassada, Nicole Mann, second row from left, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Company astronaut Koichi Wakata depart the Operations and Checkout constructing earlier than heading to Launch Pad 39-A on the Kennedy House Heart in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for a mission to the Worldwide House Station Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. The 4 are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday, March 12, 2023, after 5 months on the Worldwide House Station. Credit score: AP Photograph/John Raoux, File
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On this photograph made obtainable by NASA, clockwise from left, Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann from NASA, and Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) collect for a portrait contained in the Worldwide House Station’s Kibo laboratory module on March 1, 2023. The 4 are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday, March 12 after 5 months on the Worldwide House Station. Credit score: NASA by way of AP
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata craved sushi, whereas Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina yearned to drink sizzling tea “from actual cup, not from plastic bag.”
NASA astronaut Josh Cassada’s to-do record included getting a rescue canine for his household. “Please do not inform our two cats,” he joked earlier than departing the space station.
Remaining behind on the space station are three People, three Russians and one from the United Arab Emirates.
Wakata, Japan’s spaceflight champion, now has logged greater than 500 days in space over 5 missions relationship again to NASA’s shuttle period.
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4 astronauts fly SpaceX again house, finish 5-month mission (2023, March 12)
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