After spending nearly five months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), an international crew of four astronauts began their descent back to Earth in a SpaceX capsule on Friday.
The crew includes US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. They are expected to spend over 17 hours in the capsule before splashing down off the coast of California at 1533 GMT on Saturday.
A Milestone for Commercial Space Travel
This return marks the conclusion of the 10th crew rotation mission to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an initiative created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry.
The Dragon capsule, a product of billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, detached from the ISS at 2215 GMT on Friday. The capsule’s rapid descent will be slowed upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, followed by the deployment of massive parachutes to ensure a soft landing. After the capsule splashes down, a SpaceX recovery ship will retrieve it. Only then will the astronauts breathe Earth’s air for the first time in months.
Mission Highlights and Crew Updates
The astronauts, known as Crew-10, conducted numerous scientific experiments during their time on the space station, including studies on plant growth and how cells react to gravity. Their launch in March was particularly significant as it enabled two US astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to finally return home after being stranded on the station for nine months.
Wilmore and Williams had originally been sent into space in June 2024 for an eight-day test flight of the Boeing Starliner. However, propulsion issues with their spacecraft rendered it unfit for the return trip, leaving them stranded. This week, NASA announced that Wilmore has decided to retire after 25 years of service.
Last week, a new crew of US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov boarded the ISS for a six-month mission.
