After six months of working in an orbiting lab, the four astronauts that made up the Crew-3 mission have safely returned to Earth from the International Space Station. The crew rode back on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance, the same capsule that brought them to space on its debut flight in November.
Onboard were three American astronauts from NASA and one German astronaut from the European Space Agency. After taking off early Thursday morning, the capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico using parachutes. The experience was documented in a video by NASA.
And… splashdown! Dragon has safely made it home with precious cargo aboard: four #Crew3 astronauts!
Now they wait for the recovery vehicle, which is named after Shannon Walker, mission specialist for the first crewed @SpaceX mission to the @Space_Station: pic.twitter.com/VDDXdsxkbH
— NASA (@NASA) May 6, 2022
Over the past half-year, the Crew-3 astronauts have conducted a series of experiments, including Spaceflight Standard Measures, “biological core measurements include physiological, psychological, and chemical measurements of the crew to characterize the effects of living and working in space.”
In total, the Crew-3 astronauts spent 177 days in orbit. SpaceX’s next mission to the I.S.S. is expected to launch this September.
In other tech news, CASETiFY has returned with another Basquiat-inspired collection.