A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule is launched on April 23, 2021 with four astronauts on a NASA commercial crew mission to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
The four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule have returned to Earth and parachuted to land in the Gulf of Mexico after a record-breaking mission to the International Space Station. The astronauts spent more than five months in space, the longest time any crew has spent in an American-built spaceship.
Shannon Walker, Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover from NASA and Soichi Noguchi from Japan reached the space station via the kite capsule last November.
After undocking from the space station on Saturday at 8:35 p.m., the astronauts traveled through the atmosphere and landed with parachutes in the Mexican Gulf on Sunday at around 2:57 a.m. CET.
“There really couldn’t have been a more flawless journey home for Crew Dragon Resilience,” said Leah Cheshier, NASA public affairs officer.
SpaceX Mission Control greeted the astronauts with a bit of humor after they touched down: “We welcome you back to planet Earth and thank you for flying SpaceX. For those of you who have participated in our frequent flyer program, you have visited this one Traveled 68 million miles. “”
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