SpaceX brought four astronauts home with a midnight crash in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, ending the busiest month so far for Elon Musk’s taxi service.
The three American astronauts and a German in the capsule boarded off the coast of Florida, near Tampa, less than 24 hours after leaving the International Space Station. NASA expected to return them to Houston later this morning.
NASA’s Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency embraced the seven astronauts left at the station before parting.
“This is the end of a six-month mission, but I think the space dream is alive,” Maurer said.
26 people in orbit in less than 2 years
SpaceX unveiled its alternates in the United States and Italy last week after completing a charter trip to the station for three businessmen.
This equates to two crew launches and two descents in just one month. Musk’s company has already launched 26 people into orbit in less than two years since it began transporting astronauts to NASA. Eight of these 26 were space tourists.
“Welcome home,” SpaceX Mission Control said on the descent. “Thanks for flying SpaceX.”
“It was a great ride,” said Chari, the capsule commander. As for the reintroduction of gravity, he noted: “Just one complaint. These water bottles are super heavy.”
All four emerged from the capsule an hour later, waving and raising their thumbs as they were taken to rolling lounge chairs for medical examinations.
The astronauts said their mission was underscored by the three visitors and their former escort of astronauts, who landed in April, opening NASA’s side to the paying guest station after decades of resistance.
Dangerous space junk
On the other hand, they had to fight a dangerous leap into space debris after Russia blew up a satellite in a missile test in mid-November. More than 1,500 pieces of shrapnel have been orbiting the Earth for years to come.
As the war in Ukraine sparked tensions between the United States and Russia, the astronauts stood by their Russian counterparts and back. Flight supervisors in Houston and Moscow also continued to cooperate, as always, according to NASA officials.
In this image, made by a video provided by NASA, Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency left the SpaceX Dragon space capsule early Friday. (NASA / Associated Press)
As he relinquished command of the space station earlier this week, Marshburn called it a “place of peace” and said international co-operation was likely to be her enduring legacy. Russian Oleg Artemiev, the new commander, also emphasized “peace between our countries, our friendship” in orbit and described his teammates as brothers and sisters.
There are now three Russians up there, three Americans and one Italian.
This was Marshburn’s third space flight and the first for the three returning with him. Charlie and Barron’s next stop may be the moon; they are among 18 American astronauts selected for NASA’s Artemis moon landing program. Two other members of this elite group are now on the space station.
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