4 area station astronauts are again on Earth after a fast SpaceX flight residence
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — 4 area station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a fast SpaceX flight residence.
Their capsule splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico simply off the Florida coast close to Tampa.
The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent 5 months on the Worldwide Area Station, arriving final October. Moreover dodging area junk, the astronauts needed to take care of a pair of leaking Russian capsules docked to the orbiting outpost and the pressing supply of a substitute craft for the station’s different crew members.
Led by NASA’s Nicole Mann, the primary Native American girl to fly in area, the astronauts checked out of the station early Saturday morning. Lower than 19 hours later, their Dragon capsule was bobbing within the sea as they awaited pickup.
Earlier within the week, excessive wind and waves within the splashdown zones saved them on the station a number of additional days. Their replacements arrived greater than per week in the past.
“That was one heck of a experience,” Mann radioed moments after splashdown. “We’re glad to be residence.”
Mann, a member of Northern California’s Wailacki of the Spherical Valley Indian Tribes, mentioned she couldn’t wait to really feel the wind on her face, odor recent grass and luxuriate in some scrumptious Earth food.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata craved sushi, whereas Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina yearned to drink sizzling tea “from actual cup, not from plastic bag.”
NASA astronaut Josh Cassada’s to-do listing included getting a rescue canine for his household. “Please do not inform our two cats,” he joked earlier than departing the area station.
Remaining behind on the area station are three People, three Russians and one from the United Arab Emirates.
Wakata, Japan’s spaceflight champion, now has logged greater than 500 days in area over 5 missions courting again to NASA’s shuttle period.
___ The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives help from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Instructional Media Group. The AP is solely answerable for all content material.
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