NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 Astronauts Complete Successful Splashdown After 186 Days In Space

The four-member crew aboard NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 Dragon capsule splashed down off the coast of Florida, returning safely after a nearly six-month-long mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

What Happened: At about 12:17 a.m. ET, NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev returned to Earth, completing their 186-day mission aboard the space station. A Falcon 9 rocket launched the mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2. 

SpaceX announced their safe return in a post, “Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, Steve,@Astro_Woody, Andrey, and @Astro_Alneyadi!”

Teams on the SpaceX recovery ship, including two fast boats, now are in the process of securing Dragon and ensuring the spacecraft is safe for the recovery effort, NASA said in a statement.

The return of the Crew-6 follows the successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov to orbit aboard the Dragon spacecraft named Endurance. It docked with the space station on Aug. 27, 9:16 a.m. ET.

Photo by Evgeniyqw on Shutterstock

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