CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — 4 house station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a fast SpaceX flight house.
Their capsule splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico simply off the Florida coast close to Tampa.
The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent 5 months on the Worldwide Area Station, arriving final October. Moreover dodging house junk, the astronauts needed to take care of a pair of leaking Russian capsules docked to the orbiting outpost and the pressing supply of a alternative craft for the station’s different crew members.
Led by NASA’s Nicole Mann, the primary Native American girl to fly in house, the astronauts checked out of the station early Saturday morning. Lower than 19 hours later, their Dragon capsule was bobbing within the sea as they awaited pickup.
Earlier within the week, excessive wind and waves within the splashdown zones saved them on the station just a few additional days. Their replacements arrived greater than per week in the past.
“That was one heck of a experience,” Mann radioed moments after splashdown. “We’re blissful to be house.”
Mann, a member of Northern California’s Wailacki of the Spherical Valley Indian Tribes, stated she couldn’t wait to really feel the wind on her face, scent contemporary grass and luxuriate in some scrumptious Earth meals.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata craved sushi, whereas Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina yearned to drink scorching tea “from actual cup, not from plastic bag.”
NASA astronaut Josh Cassada’s to-do record included getting a rescue canine for his household. “Please don’t inform our two cats,” he joked earlier than departing the house station.
Remaining behind on the house station are three People, three Russians and one from the United Arab Emirates.
Wakata, Japan’s spaceflight champion, now has logged greater than 500 days in house over 5 missions relationship again to NASA’s shuttle period.
