Four astronauts returned to Earth today in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, bringing their six-month stint on the International Space Station to a close (ISS).
The crew dived through Earth’s atmosphere after disengaging from the ISS early Thursday morning, splashing down beneath parachutes off the coast of Florida at 12:43 a.m. ET.
Three NASA astronauts: Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron — as well as European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer were on board the Crew Dragon.
The astronauts, who were part of the Crew-3 mission, flew to orbit in the same Crew Dragon in November. They’ve been living and working on the orbiting lab since docking, performing science experiments and maintaining the station via spacewalks.
The Crew-3 astronauts have also had an interesting time in orbit. Shortly after they arrived at the ISS, Russia used a ground-based missile to destroy one of its own satellites, resulting in a cloud of debris that threatened the space station’s stability at first.
The Crew-3 astronauts and Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station had to take cover within their ship after the satellite was destroyed, in case the resulting debris damaged the space station and they needed to flee quickly.
The debris did not hurt the International Space Station, and the crew was allowed to resume their normal work schedule.
Following that occurrence, Russia invaded Ukraine, heightening tensions between the US and Russia on the planet.
Many people were concerned that the ISS cooperation between NASA and Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, would be jeopardized, and that operations on board the space station might be jeopardized.
Finally, the Crew-3 astronauts and their Russian colleagues resumed their job as planned, and in March, they welcomed a new crew of Russian cosmonauts to the station.
While Dmitry Rogozin, the president of Roscosmos, continues to hint at a possible end to Russia’s ISS deal, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson informed Congress on May 3rd that all is OK on board the ISS and that Russia has not yet pulled out.
With Crew-3’s safe return, SpaceX and NASA have completed another routine human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station.
As part of the Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX has a contract with NASA to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station on a regular basis.
Crew-3 was SpaceX’s third voyage to the International Orbit Station for NASA, and the company’s eighth time launching astronauts into space.
To read our blog on “NASA’s new crews of astronauts successfully sent to ISS by SpaceX,” click here
