Four astronauts are back on Earth after nearly eight months aboard the International Space Station, splashing down Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Pacific Ocean off Los Angeles.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev touched down at 10:34 a.m. CDT aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, NASA said in a news release. The crew undocked from the station Wednesday, Oct. 7, beginning a roughly 27-hour return trip.
All four were out of the capsule within an hour, waving and pumping their fists aboard SpaceX's recovery ship, the Daily News reported. After a helicopter ride to shore, they headed for Johnson Space Center for standard medical screenings.
"We are so excited to be back on Planet Earth after an incredible mission on the International Space Station," Meir radioed moments after splashdown.
The 237-day mission sent the crew more than 100 million miles around Earth across 3,792 orbits. Meir, the mission commander, now has 440 total days in space, placing her in NASA's top 10 for career time in orbit. She completed four spacewalks during the mission, bringing her career total to seven and ranking her third all-time among women at NASA behind former astronauts Peggy Whitson and Suni Williams.
Adenot made history of her own. She completed three spacewalks, becoming the first French woman to venture outside the station.
The mission was the first spaceflight for Hathaway and Adenot. Hathaway, a Navy pilot, grew a naval aviator-style mustache before launch and kept it the entire mission. Ground controllers grew mustaches in solidarity. The crew also threw a dance party and held cooking demonstrations complete with aprons and a chef's toque.
Meir joined the Boston Pops with her piccolo for a July 4 concert from the ISS, marking the United States' 250th birthday.
Crew-12's research spanned stem cell production for cell-based therapies and on-demand IV fluid generation for future missions. The crew also studied how pneumonia-causing bacteria can lead to long-term heart damage, along with nutrition and blood-flow changes during spaceflight.
The crew launched Feb. 13 and docked to the station Feb. 14. They were dispatched after NASA astronaut Mike Fincke fell ill aboard the station, prompting NASA's first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight, according to the Daily News.
Their replacements, SpaceX Crew-13, arrived at the station Oct. 1, setting a U.S. speed record with an approximately eight-hour transit from launch to docking. Crew-13 includes NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. Capsule repairs delayed Crew-13's arrival by three weeks, which also stalled Crew-12's homecoming.
Dana Weigel, manager of NASA's Low Earth Orbit Program at Johnson Space Center, said the station's science, engineering and risk-reduction work "enables … future missions across the solar system."
What's next
- Thursday, Oct. 15, 2:30 p.m. CDT: Meir, Hathaway and Fedyaev hold a news conference at Johnson Space Center to discuss the mission. Adenot will not attend as she returns to Europe.
- Tuesday, Oct. 13: SpaceX targets a cargo resupply launch carrying more than 6,300 pounds of supplies to the station.
