SpaceX’s Crew-6 astronauts splash down after 6-month elevate on ISS

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Infrared search of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Endeavour” because it splashed down within the Atlantic Ocean off the stream of Jacksonville, Florida on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The tablet returned from the International Condominium Space with Crew-6 — Steve Bowen, Woody Hoburg, Sultan AlNeyadi and Andrey Fedyaev — after 186 days. (NASA TV)
(Image credit ranking: NASA TV)

Four astronauts are wait on on Earth, having every finished their first long-duration spaceflight on the International Condominium Space (ISS).

Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg of NASA, Sultan AlNeyadi of the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Andrey Fedyaev of Russia’s federal do corporation Roscosmos, collectively SpaceX’s Crew-6, splashed down on board the firm’s Dragon spacecraft “Endeavour” at 12:17 a.m. EDT (0417 GMT) on Monday (Sept. 4) within the Atlantic Ocean off the stream of Jacksonville, Florida. Of the four, ideal Bowen had flown in do sooner than.

“After we showed up right here six months ago, it became a fresh experience for all of us,” stated Bowen right by a rapid farewell ceremony aboard the distance on Thursday (Aug. 31). “I had been to position, but I’ve never been on a long-duration mission. This has been a fully not likely experience, and or no longer it is been a huge opportunity to note my fantastic crewmates as they’ve strategy along.”

Related: SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts voice goodbye from the ISS

Seven contributors of the Expedition 69 crew aboard the International Condominium Space. In the bottom row are Andrey Fedyaev, Woody Hoburg, Steve Bowen and Sultan AlNeyadi. At top (the other draw up) are Dmitri Petelin, Sergey Prokopyev and Frank Rubio. (Image credit ranking: NASA)Having launched on March 2, the Crew-6 astronauts’ touchdown wrapped their 186-day mission, right by which they served as Expedition 68 and Expedition 69 flight engineers aboard the International Condominium Space.

They had at the initiating been scheduled to return dwelling on Sunday morning (Sept. 3), but miserable weather instances extended their shield in orbit by a day.

“Or no longer it is completely been the experience of a lifetime and a staunch honor to receive to utilize six incredibly rapid-feeling months residing and working aboard this not likely orbiting outpost,” stated Warren at the an identical ceremony. “I deem we bought a lot done. We started off with SpaceX [Commercial Resupply Services or CRS] 27 perfect away, a cargo automobile stuffed with science. Later, we had the SpaceX [CRS] 28 mission, as neatly we welcomed a visiting Axiom crew on board.”

“We did three spacewalks amongst our Crew-6. We berthed a Cygnus [cargo] automobile. We did different upkeep, and optimistically we’re leaving the do space reliable a diminutive bit bit greater than we chanced on it,” stated Warren.

The four astronauts departed the do space on Sunday, with the self sustaining undocking of the Dragon Endeavour from the do-facing port of the Harmony node at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT).

For AlNeyadi, the flight became no longer ideal his first, but the major long-duration expedition by an Arab and by an Emirati. He’s ideal the second UAE astronaut to soar, after the rapid, week-long mission to the do space by Hazza AlMansoori in 2019. The first Arab in do, Prince Sultan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, launched on a NASA do shuttle in 1985.

“We had a upright outreach with many of us across the enviornment, so it became in actuality fantastic —specifically for my pickle,” stated AlNeyadi. “I strategy from a say the do human spaceflights had been stopped for more than 30 years, and I felt that I became obligated to exhibit what’s happening with the distance. I deem it became a little enhance in direction of spreading the ardour in our pickle.”

AlNeyadi became accountable for picking the Crew-6 zero-g indicator, a little plush doll of the UAE astronaut program’s mascot “Suhail,” which additionally returned to Earth on Monday on the Dragon.

Fedyaev is right the second Russian cosmonaut and first Russian man in history to purposely return from do to a water touchdown. His dash aboard the SpaceX spacecraft became piece of a seat swap settlement between NASA and Roscosmos.

NASA and SpaceX mission insignia representing Crew-6’s mission to the International Condominium Space. (Image credit ranking: NASA/SpaceX)SpaceX restoration boats, at the side of the “Megan” — which became named after NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, one of many major ladies to soar on a SpaceX Dragon — had been staged shut to the touchdown point and had been mercurial on hand to serve retrieve the spacecraft and its crew from the water.

With Crew-6 wait on on Earth, the do space’s Expedition 69 continues with NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Jasmin Moghbeli, European Condominium Company (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Konstantin Borisov. Expedition 70 will originate when Russia’s Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft departs the distance in gradual September with Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, the latter surroundings a fresh U.S. legend for time on a single do mission at 371 days.

Crew-6 became SpaceX’s sixth crew rotation flight for NASA, seventh crewed spaceflight in give a enhance to of the U.S. do agency and ninth human spaceflight within the firm’s history. Crew-6 marked the fourth flight of Endeavour, which earlier flew the Demo-2, Crew-2 and Axiom-1 missions to and from the do space.

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Robert Pearlman is a do historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a net publication and neighborhood dedicated to position history with a explicit point of interest on how and the do do exploration intersects with popular culture. Pearlman is additionally a contributing creator for Condominium.com and co-creator of “Condominium Stations: The Art, Science, and Fact of Working in Condominium” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. He beforehand developed online lisp material for the National Condominium Society and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, helped put the do tourism firm Condominium Adventures and currently serves on the Historical previous Committee of the American Astronautical Society, the advisory committee for The Mars Technology and leadership board of For All Moonkind. In 2009, he became inducted into the U.S. Condominium Camp Hall of Popularity in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he became honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight Historical previous.

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