On this picture from video offered by NASA, astronauts within the SpaceX Dragon capsule undock from the Worldwide House Station on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.
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On this picture from video offered by NASA, astronauts within the SpaceX Dragon capsule undock from the Worldwide House Station on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.
AP
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — 4 astronauts returned to Earth on Monday, using residence with SpaceX to finish a 200-day house station mission that started final spring.
Their capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, in darkness. Restoration boats shortly moved in with spotlights.
Their homecoming — coming simply eight hours after leaving the Worldwide House Station — paved the best way for SpaceX’s launch of their 4 replacements as early as Wednesday evening.
The newcomers have been scheduled to launch first, however NASA switched the order due to unhealthy climate and an astronaut’s undisclosed medical situation. The welcoming duties will now fall to the lone American and two Russians left behind on the house station.
Earlier than Monday afternoon’s undocking, German astronaut Matthias Maurer, who’s ready to launch at NASA’s Kennedy House Middle, tweeted it was a disgrace the 2 crews would not overlap on the house station however “we belief you will go away all the things good and tidy.” His will probably be SpaceX’s fourth crew flight for NASA in simply 1 1/2 years.
NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide and France’s Thomas Pesquet ought to have been again Monday morning, however excessive wind within the restoration zone delayed their return.
“Another evening with this magical view. Who might complain? I will miss our spaceship!” Pesquet tweeted alongside a short video displaying the house station illuminated towards the blackness of house and the twinkling metropolis lights on the nighttime aspect of Earth.
From the house station, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei — halfway by means of a one-year flight — bid farewell to every of his departing buddies, telling McArthur “I will miss listening to your laughter in adjoining modules.”
On this picture from video offered by NASA, astronauts within the SpaceX Dragon capsule put together for undocking from the Worldwide House Station on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.
AP
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On this picture from video offered by NASA, astronauts within the SpaceX Dragon capsule put together for undocking from the Worldwide House Station on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.
AP
Earlier than leaving the neighborhood, the 4 took a spin across the house station, taking footage. This was a primary for SpaceX; NASA’s shuttles used to do it on a regular basis earlier than their retirement a decade in the past. The final Russian capsule fly-around was three years in the past.
It wasn’t probably the most snug experience again. The bathroom of their capsule was damaged, and so the astronauts wanted to depend on diapers for the eight-hour journey residence. They shrugged it off late final week as only one extra problem of their mission.
The primary difficulty arose shortly after their April liftoff; Mission Management warned a bit of house junk was threatening to collide with their capsule. It turned out to be a false alarm. Then in July, thrusters on a newly arrived Russian lab inadvertently fired and despatched the station right into a spin. The 4 astronauts took shelter of their docked SpaceX capsule, able to make a hasty departure if obligatory.
Among the many upbeat milestones: 4 spacewalks to boost the station’s solar energy, a movie-making go to by a Russian movie crew and the first-ever house harvest of chile peppers.
The following crew may even spend six months up there, welcoming back-to-back teams of vacationers. A Japanese tycoon and his private assistant will get a elevate from the Russian House Company in December, adopted by three businessmen arriving through SpaceX in February. SpaceX’s first privately chartered flight, in September, bypassed the house station.
