Sept. 4 (UPI) — The SpaceX Crew-6 Dragon Spacecraft, carrying four astronauts, successfully splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean early Monday, nearly 20 hours after it undocked from the International Space Station, thus completing its return journey to Earth.
The self-driving Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavor, safely landed off the coast of Florida near Jacksonville at 12:17 a.m. EDT, marking the end of the astronauts’ six-month science mission in the orbital laboratory.
“After a 17-hour return journey from space, Crew 6 is now back home,” stated Kate Tice, senior quality systems engineering manager at SpaceX, during the live broadcast. The capsule could be seen landing in the ocean, where it began bobbing up and down as fast boats raced to its location.
The splashdown signifies the conclusion of the 186-day mission in space for United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, and NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, who embarked on their journey to the International Space Station in early March.
The capsule was retrieved from the ocean and placed on SpaceX’s Megan recovery vessel, which had been awaiting the astronauts’ return approximately 3 nautical miles away. Less than an hour after the splashdown, Bowen was the first to exit the capsule, followed by Hoburg, Fedyaev, and Alneyadi.
The crew will now undergo medical evaluation.
“Welcome home, #Crew6!” tweeted NASA following the splashdown. “After six months of scientific exploration aboard the @Space_Station, our Crew-6 team splashed down at 12:17am ET (0417 UTC) and will be picked up shortly by recovery teams.”
The splashdown took place 17 hours after the spacecraft undocked from the forward-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 7:05 a.m. EDT on Sunday.
The departure was initially scheduled for Saturday but was delayed due to the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, which struck Florida last week as a Category 4 hurricane, causing significant destruction.
The Crew-6 astronauts embarked on their journey to the International Space Station in early March, relieving the Crew-5 of their duties and conducting their own six-month scientific expedition.
Crew-6 has now been relieved of its duties by Crew-7, which arrived at the space station for its six-month stay on August 27.
