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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with the Crew Dragon capsule, is launched carrying four astronauts on a NASA commercial crew mission to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 23, 2021.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
The four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule returned to Earth, crashing into parachutes landing in the Gulf of Mexico after a record-breaking mission to the International Space Station. Astronauts have spent more than five months in space, the longest time ever for a crew launched in a US-built spacecraft.
Shannon Walker, Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover from NASA and Soichi Noguchi from Japan reached the space station via the Dragon capsule last November.
After detaching from the space station at 8:35 p.m. on Saturday, the astronauts traveled through the atmosphere and landed in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City, Fla., Via parachutes around 2:57 a.m. ET on Sunday. They exited the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft within an hour of landing.
The weather conditions were almost perfect, with little wind and calm seas. “It really couldn’t have been a more perfect return trip for Crew Dragon Resilience,” said Leah Cheshier, NASA public affairs manager.
The mission also took other milestones: touchdown was the first time an American spacecraft had landed in darkness since 1968, and the second time a space capsule had splashed in the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX Mission Control greeted the astronauts with humor after they landed: “We welcome you to planet Earth and thank you for flying SpaceX. For those of you signed up to our frequent flyer program, you’ve won. 68 million miles on this trip. “
The SpaceX crew’s second operational mission arrived at the International Space Station early in the morning of April 24, carrying four astronauts for a six-month stay in space.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft “ Endeavor, ” which launched on a Falcon 9 rocket the day before, docked with the ISS at 5:22 a.m. EDT. The capsule carries an international group of astronauts: Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA, Akihiko Hoshide of JAXA and Thomas Pesquet of ESA.
At that time, the Crew-2 mission temporarily brought the total number of astronauts aboard the orbiting research lab to 11.
—CNBC Michael sheetz contributed to this report.
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