An international crew of four astronauts successfully returned to Earth on Saturday, concluding a nearly five-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The crew, consisting of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, splashed down safely off the coast of California in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The Dragon spacecraft, built by Elon Musk’s company, detached from the ISS on Friday at 2215 GMT and completed its 17-hour journey back to Earth with a splashdown at 8:44 am local time (1534 GMT). The capsule’s re-entry was a controlled descent, slowed first by Earth’s atmosphere and then by the deployment of massive parachutes, ensuring a safe landing. Following the splashdown, the capsule was recovered by a SpaceX ship, and the astronauts were able to breathe Earth’s air again for the first time in months.
This mission, known as Crew-10, was the 10th crew rotation to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This initiative partners with private companies like SpaceX to provide crew transportation, a program established to succeed the Space Shuttle era.
During their time on the ISS, the Crew-10 astronauts conducted numerous scientific experiments, including studies on plant growth and how cells react to gravity in microgravity environments. Their launch to the space station in March was particularly significant as it enabled two other US astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to return home after being stranded on the station for an unexpected nine months.
Wilmore and Williams had launched to the ISS in June 2024 for what was supposed to be a brief eight-day test of the Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight. However, the spacecraft experienced propulsion problems and was deemed unfit for the return trip. NASA has since announced that Butch Wilmore has retired from the agency after 25 years of service.
The successful return of the Crew-10 astronauts comes just a week after a new international crew, including US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, boarded the ISS for their own six-month mission.