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Four astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego on Saturday, concluding a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance, carrying Commander Anne McClain, Pilot Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, landed at 11:33 a.m. EDT. The splashdown occurred 17.5 hours after the spacecraft undocked from the station.
Recovery crews were on hand to retrieve the capsule and its crew. After the hatch was opened, the astronauts, who spent 148 days in space, received medical checks as they reacclimated to Earth’s gravity.
All four appeared to be in good health and spirits. A helicopter transported the crew to shore, where a NASA plane was waiting to fly them back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The crew undocked from the station on Friday evening, two days later than initially planned due to unfavorable weather conditions off the California coast. After undocking, the crew spent several hours orbiting Earth before beginning their descent.
The spacecraft’s thrusters fired for over 17 minutes to slow its speed, allowing it to re-enter the atmosphere. The Crew Dragon endured a fiery re-entry before parachutes deployed, enabling a gentle splashdown.
The Crew-10 astronauts spent several days familiarizing their replacements, Crew-11, with station operations. Crew-11 includes Commander Zena Cardman, Pilot Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They are joined by the Soyuz MS-27/73S crew: Commander Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky, and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim.
This mission marks the first Pacific splashdown for a NASA-sponsored crew aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft. Previous missions landed off the coast of Florida.
The change in landing location was implemented by SpaceX to ensure that debris from the spacecraft’s trunk section falls into the Pacific, away from populated areas. Two commercial Crew Dragon flights earlier this year paved the way for this new landing procedure.