San Diego – After spending over four months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), four astronauts made a safe return to Earth with a splashdown off the coast of San Diego on Saturday morning, wrapping up NASA and SpaceX’s Crew 10 mission.
SpaceX reported that the Dragon spacecraft was released from the ISS at 6:05 pm EDT on Friday, August 8th. It executed a series of “orbital degradation operations” before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
The capsule successfully splashed down at 11:33 am EDT on Saturday in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 17 hours after the crew’s departure.
Onboard were NASA astronauts Anne McLain and Nicole Ayers, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Kirill Peskov from Roscosmos. Reports indicate that all four crew members are in good health following the recovery efforts.
This mission, which launched on March 14th from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, involved a 145-day stay in orbit. The Dragon capsule docked autonomously to the ISS right after its release, facilitating a variety of scientific research projects.
During their time in orbit, Crew 10 contributed to experiments focused on enhancing future human space exploration and improving life on Earth. This included research into technologies for microgravity human health and the sustainability of long-term missions.
This Dragon spacecraft had previous missions as part of NASA’s efforts, including Crew 3, Crew 5, and Crew 7. The Falcon 9 rocket used for this launch marked its second flight and had previously launched the SES 03B MPOWER satellite.
NASA and SpaceX provided a live stream of the re-entry and splashdown, allowing space enthusiasts to witness this exciting conclusion to the mission.
The successful return off California’s southern coast represents another significant achievement in the ongoing collaboration between NASA and SpaceX.
