Four astronauts from Crew-10 mission departed the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, beginning an almost 18-hour journey back to Earth.
US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are set to splash down off California’s coast in the Pacific Ocean at 3.33 p.m. UTC/GMT on Saturday.
The crew’s return wraps up NASA’s 10th commercial crew rotation.
According to the space agency, the four astronauts conducted more than 200 “important and time-sensitive research” over 146 days, including studies on plant growth and cell behavior in microgravity.
Crew-10 replaced stranded astronauts
The Crew-10 mission was launched on March 14, replacing Crew-9, whose members included Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams.
Wilmore and Williams aboard the ISS after their Boeing Starliner capsule developed propulsion issues.
Eventually, a SpaceX capsule owned by brought the stranded astronauts home.
this week after 25 years with NASA, the space agency announced.
Last week, US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov boarded the ISS for a six-month mission.
Edited by Sean Sinico
The post NASA astronauts return to Earth from ISS after five months appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
