Four astronauts are back on Earth, having each completed their first long-duration spaceflight on the International Space Station (ISS). Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg of NASA, Sultan AlNeyadi of the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Andrey Fedyaev of Russia’s federal space corporation Roscosmos, collectively SpaceX‘s Crew-6, splashed down on board the company’s Dragon spacecraft “Endeavour” at 12:17 a.m. EDT (0417 GMT) on Monday (Sept. 4) in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. Of the four, only Bowen had flown in space before. The Associated Press has the story:
4 Astronauts back to Earth in SpaceX capsule after 6 months
Newslooks- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)
Four astronauts returned to Earth early Monday after a six-month stay at the International Space Station. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Atlantic off the Florida coast.
Returning were NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev and the United Arab Emirates’ Sultan al-Neyadi, the first person from the Arab world to spend an extended time in orbit.
Before departing the space station, they said they were craving hot showers, steaming cups of coffee and the ocean air since arriving in March. Their homecoming was delayed a day because of poor weather at the splashdown locations, but in the end, provided a spectacular middle-of-the-night show as the capsule streaked through the sky over Cape Canaveral toward a splashdown near Jacksonville.
The astronauts said it was incredible to be back. “You’ve got a roomful of happy people here,” SpaceX Mission Control radioed.
SpaceX launched their replacements over a week ago.
Another crew switch will occur later this month with the long-awaited homecoming of two Russians and one American who have been up there an entire year. Their stay was doubled after their Soyuz capsule leaked all of its coolant and a new craft had to be launched.
Between crew swaps, the space station is home to seven astronauts.
