SpaceX’s Crew-5 astronauts have returned to Earth.
The 4 astronauts on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, named Endurance, splashed down late Saturday (March 11), wrapping up a five-month mission to the International Space Station . Returning on the capsule have been NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia, who splashed down in darkness after streaking over the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida at 9:02 p.m. EST (0202 GMT on March 12).
“Thanks SpaceX , that was one heck of a experience!” Mann radioed to SpaceX’s mission management workforce after splashdown. “We’re glad to be dwelling.”
Associated: Auroras and more: Crew-5 astronauts reflect on their time in orbit
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The SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon Endurance capsule descends to Earth beneath parachutes because it splashes down within the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida on March 11, 2023, returning 4 astronauts to Earth after 5 months. (Picture credit score: NASA/Keegan Barber)
The SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon Endurance streaks over the Gulf of Mexico forward of a splashdown off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida on March 11, 2023. (Picture credit score: NASA/Keegan Barber)
House’s Crew-5 Dragon Endurance descends to Earth beneath 4 principal parachutes for a profitable splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico on March 11, 2023. (Picture credit score: NASA TV)
SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon Endurance splashes down within the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa Bay, Florida on March 11, 2023. (Picture credit score: NASA TV)
House’s Crew-5 Dragon Endurance descends to Earth beneath 4 principal parachutes for a profitable splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico on March 11, 2023. (Picture credit score: NASA TV)
The 4 astronauts spent 157 days in space throughout their mission to the space station on a mission that marked the primary spaceflight ever for Mann, Cassada and Kikina. It was the fifth flight for Wakata, who now has 505 days in space beneath his belt. SpaceX restoration groups arrived on the scene rapidly in quick boats from the corporate’s restoration ship S.S. Shannon (named for astronaut Shannon Walker who flew on SpaceX’s Crew-1 flight for NASA).
Endurance undocked from the station earlier on Saturday at 2:20 a.m. EST (0720 GMT), then carried out a sequence of maneuvers to place itself on target for atmospheric reentry. The protected splashdown beneath parachutes wrapped up SpaceX’s fifth operational mission for NASA’s Industrial Crew Program, swapping personnel aboard the space station with the not too long ago arrived members of Crew-6.
NASA officers stated the Crew-5 Dragon lit up the evening sky as an excellent streak of sunshine because it reentered Earth’s environment.
The Crew-5 astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spent 157 days in space. They’re clockwise from left: Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. (Picture credit score: NASA)
The Crew-5 mission achieved a pair of historic firsts, with Mann turning into the first Native American woman to reach space and Kikina the first Russian to fly on a private American spacecraft . Moreover, the mission marked Wakata’s fifth return from space — a Japanese document — with Crew Dragon the third crew-rated craft he is flown on.
It will have been potential, by the best way, for a fifth passenger to come back dwelling on Endurance as nicely. In mid-December 2022, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked on the station sprang a leak and misplaced all of its coolant, apparently after struggling a meteoroid strike. That Soyuz was to be the experience dwelling for 3 spaceflyers, together with NASA’s Frank Rubio.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, left, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, proper, are seen contained in the SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX restoration ship Shannon shortly after having landed within the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida on March 11, 2023. (Picture credit score: NASA/Keegan Barber)
In January, Endurance was quickly outfitted to hold an additional individual — Rubio — in case an emergency evacuation of the ISS have been required. (The opposite two Soyuz crewmembers, cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, would have ridden the wounded Soyuz dwelling; Russian space officers had decided the spacecraft may safely carry two individuals, however not three, with out coolant.)
The Endurance modifications have been eliminated final month, nevertheless, after Russia’s space company Roscosmos launched a alternative Soyuz to function the experience dwelling for Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin.
SpaceX’s Crew-6 arrived at the orbiting lab on March 3 for a six-month keep, delivering NASA astronauts Warren “Woody” Hoburg and Stephen Bowen, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi on the Dragon capsule Endeavour.
Crew-6 is a historic mission as nicely: Al-Neyadi is the primary astronaut from the UAE to fly a long-duration space mission.
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