Photo: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
A SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft carried four astronauts back home after a six-month-long stay on the International Space Station (ISS). On May 6, the crew safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, completing the agency's third commercial crew mission.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 mission is part of the Commercial Crew Program. Its return to Earth comes shortly after the Crew-4 launch, which arrived on the ISS on April 27.
The Crew-3 mission was launched last year, on November 10, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Onboard the Crew Dragon were three NASA astronauts, Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, and a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Matthias Maurer.
The spacecraft docked with the space station a day later, marking the beginning of a new science expedition. During their six-month stay, the astronauts conducted new scientific research.
Among many scientific investigations, the crew attempted to grow plants without soil, took images of their retinas as part of an investigation that focuses on identifying eye changes of astronauts in space, and "demonstrated technology that provides measurements of biological indicators related to disease and infection."
The astronauts also monitored our planet from orbit as part of the Crew Earth Observation research (which is one of the longest-running investigations onboard the space station), and they performed three spacewalks.
But their journey has come to an end. On May 5, Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer departed the space station and headed toward Earth. After almost a day, the SpaceX Crew Dragon landed with a splash off the coast of Florida.
Recovery vessels carried the spacecraft, along with the team, to shore. The astronauts will head to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, while the spacecraft is set to return to SpaceX's Dragon Lair in Florida, where teams will analyze the data collected throughout the flight.
The Crew-3 mission was launched last year, on November 10, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Onboard the Crew Dragon were three NASA astronauts, Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, and a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Matthias Maurer.
The spacecraft docked with the space station a day later, marking the beginning of a new science expedition. During their six-month stay, the astronauts conducted new scientific research.
Among many scientific investigations, the crew attempted to grow plants without soil, took images of their retinas as part of an investigation that focuses on identifying eye changes of astronauts in space, and "demonstrated technology that provides measurements of biological indicators related to disease and infection."
The astronauts also monitored our planet from orbit as part of the Crew Earth Observation research (which is one of the longest-running investigations onboard the space station), and they performed three spacewalks.
But their journey has come to an end. On May 5, Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer departed the space station and headed toward Earth. After almost a day, the SpaceX Crew Dragon landed with a splash off the coast of Florida.
Recovery vessels carried the spacecraft, along with the team, to shore. The astronauts will head to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, while the spacecraft is set to return to SpaceX's Dragon Lair in Florida, where teams will analyze the data collected throughout the flight.
And… splashdown! Dragon has safely made it home with precious cargo aboard: four #Crew3 astronauts!
— NASA (@NASA) May 6, 2022
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
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