SpaceX Crew Capsule Splashes Down in Pacific After ISS Stay

A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts returned from space and splashed down off the coast of California on Thursday, capping the crew’s mission to the International Space Station.

The crew, part of a mission called Crew-12, had been living and working on the ISS since February, after launching to space in the same SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that brought them home.

The astronauts undocked from the ISS on Wednesday and spent a little over a day moving closer to Earth, before plunging through the atmosphere and landing in the Pacific Ocean under parachutes.

On board Crew-12 are NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

“Thank you, SpaceX. Thank you, NASA,” Meir could be heard saying on the agency’s livestream. “We are so excited to be back on Earth after an incredible mission on the International Space Station with all of our colleagues and friends.”

Crew-12 was the latest in a series of missions that NASA conducts with SpaceX to keep the ISS staffed and operating.

During their time in orbit, the astronauts performed a variety of experiments aimed at analyzing how space impacts their health. The crew also performed a first-of-its-kind call with the astronauts of the Artemis II mission after they had swung around the moon in April.

Crew-12 came home roughly a week after welcoming a new crew of four astronauts on board the ISS, Crew-13, which launched and docked with the station on Thursday in a separate SpaceX Dragon capsule. The Crew-12 astronauts spent the last few days helping the incoming crew familiarize themselves with the station before returning home.

The crew exchange comes as questions swirl about the future of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. NASA has contracted with SpaceX to perform at least four more crew rotation missions with Dragon to the ISS through the planned end of the space station program by 2030.

However, NASA has acknowledged that SpaceX plans to eventually retire the vehicle in favor of putting all of the company’s efforts into making its massive Starship rocket operational.