After a successful six-month stay aboard the multinational Space Station, a four-person multinational crew of astronauts returned to Earth on Monday in a secure manner, according to CNN. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg, Sultan Alneyadi, and Andrey Fedyaev splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean early on Monday morning aboard a SpaceX Dragon Endeavour.
According to a NASA press statement, the splashdown took place at 12:17 a.m. EDT off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, following a 186-day space journey. According to NASA, the crew covered 78,875,292 miles and made 2,976 orbits of the planet during their trip.
'NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 has returned home to planet Earth after spending six months on the International Space Station, clocking approximately 79 million miles during their mission, and completing hundreds of scientific experiments for the benefit of all humanity,'' said Administrator Bill Nelson.
This international crew represented three different countries, yet they showed how humanity as a whole shares the desire to explore new cosmological frontiers. The contributions of Crew-6 will help NASA get ready to go to Mars, return to the Moon under Artemis, and enhance life on Earth,'' he stated.
Notably, the Crew-6 mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2, 2023, at 12:34 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
They carried out countless scientific studies, technological experiments, and spacewalks while on board the International Space Station. These included helping a robotics competition for students, researching plant genetic adaptations to space, and keeping an eye on human health in microgravity in order to improve life on Earth and get ready for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. They also looked into how the fuel in satellites is impacted by space wave turbulence.
Notably, this was the Dragon Endeavour's fourth trip to space and back, having previously assisted SpaceX on the missions Axiom-1, Crew-2, and Demo-2.
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