Four space station fliers return to Earth with spectacular pre-dawn descent [View all]
Source: CBS News
Updated on: March 12, 2024 / 6:59 AM EDT
Closing out a six-month stay at the International Space Station, a three-man, one-woman crew plunged back to Earth early Tuesday, streaking across the heartland of America like a blazing meteor as their Crew Dragon capsule descended to a Gulf of Mexico splashdown.
Suspended beneath four huge parachutes, the Crew Dragon "Endurance" settled to a gentle walking pace touchdown south of Pensacola, Florida, at 5:47 a.m. EDT, closing out a 199-day mission spanning 3,184 orbits and 84.4 million miles.
A SpaceX team stationed nearby hauled the capsule and its crew -- commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese flier Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov — onto the aft deck of the company's recovery ship Megan and promptly opened the side hatch.
Fifty minutes after splashdown, the astronauts were carried out one by one and placed on stretchers before being rolled inside for initial medical checks as they began re-adapting to gravity after six-and-a-half months in weightlessness. The stretchers were normal for returning long-duration station fliers and all four appeared healthy and in good spirits. The 18-and-a-half-hour trip home began Monday when Moghbeli and her Crew 7 colleagues undocked from the International Space Station.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/space-station-nasa-spacex-crew-dragon-endurance-fliers-return-to-earth-spectacular-pre-dawn-descent/
