NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Returns to Earth

The splashdown return of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with a crew of four astronauts brought NASA’s Crew-5 mission to a successful conclusion on Saturday evening in the Gulf of Mexico.

After nearly six months in space, NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Russian astronaut Anna Kikina left the International Space Station at 2:20 a.m. on Saturday before tearing through the atmosphere with a heat shield that could withstand temperatures of 3,500 degrees.

The Dragon “Endurance” capsule splashed down off the coast of Tampa at 9:02 p.m. EST, capping out the roughly 19-hour return journey.

A SpaceX recovery crew approached the 17,000-pound capsule as it bounced in a Coast Guard-secured area to make sure no dangerous propellants were there. The spacecraft was then outfitted and raised onto the deck of SpaceX’s specially made recovery ship, called “Shannon.”

Before boarding a helicopter headed for Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, the crew would finish their medical checks on the boat. They then depart for home. The final stage of the journey brings astronauts Mann, Cassada, and Wakata back to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, while Kikina will return to her native country of Russia.

Splashdown successfully completes a task that involved many hours of science research and station upkeep.

After launching, Nicole Mann, the first American woman in space history, said: “To the folks at NASA and SpaceX, thank you for a wonderful journey. Your tenacity and meticulousness have been important in the accomplishment of this endeavor.

The colonel of the Marine Corps concluded her speech by quoting the Marine Corps’ motto: “It has been a pleasure to add to the heritage. Ever faithful.

Under a multibillion-dollar Commercial Crew Program contract, SpaceX has launched seven crewed flights for NASA, including the Demo-2 mission in May 2020. This has given Americans access to crewed spaceflight again after over a decade without the space shuttle.

The Crew-5 mission was SpaceX’s sixth crewed trip overall, including commercial spaceflights, and its sixth under contract with NASA. Also, it was the first time a Russian cosmonaut has flown on an American-built spacecraft since the end of NASA’s shuttle program.

The most recent flight, Crew-6, launched on March 2 and just over a week later sent NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates, and Andrey Fedyaev of Russia to the International Space Station. After around a six-month stay, that mission is anticipated to depart again in the fall.

The following launch from Florida’s Space Coast will also be SpaceX’s 28th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. On March 14 at 8:30 p.m. EDT, a Falcon 9 rocket and an unmanned Dragon spacecraft are scheduled to launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.