Official SpaceX Crew-8 portrait with (L-R) Roscosmos cosmonaut and Mission Specialist Aleksandr Grebenkin, and Pilot Michael Barratt, Commander Matthew Dominick, and Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps, all three NASA astronauts.
Invoice Stafford/NASA
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Invoice Stafford/NASA
NASA’s Crew-8 mission members returned to Earth Friday — capping an almost eight-month mission after their journey from the Worldwide House Station was prolonged a number of occasions.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the four-member crew splashed down off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., simply earlier than 3:30 a.m. ET after a fiery nighttime return throughout southern Mexico.
Over about an hour, the capsule pierced the ambiance with an orbital velocity of 17,500 mph and finally eased to a leisurely 16 mph underneath a cover of parachutes because it landed within the Gulf of Mexico. The capsule undocked from the house station Wednesday afternoon.
The Crew-8 members spent 235 days in house, the longest of any human SpaceX mission. Their spacecraft — Endeavour — set a length report for a human-rated capsule: 701 days in orbit.
The crew included three NASA astronauts: commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, and mission specialist Jeanette Epps. Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin of Roscosmos, Russia’s house company, was additionally a part of this mission.
A number of hours after the splashdown, NASA introduced that each one 4 members of the crew have been taken to a hospital in Pensacola “for extra analysis.” In a series of statements, NASA mentioned the crew exited the spacecraft onto a restoration ship for traditional post-flight medical examinations and “extra analysis of the crew members was requested out of an abundance of warning.”
This picture supplied by NASA reveals assist groups working across the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft shortly after it landed, within the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Fla. on Friday.
NASA/by way of AP’s Joel Kowsky
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NASA/by way of AP’s Joel Kowsky
The house company says a NASA astronaut skilled a “medical difficulty” again on Earth. “After medical analysis on the hospital, three of the crew members departed Pensacola and have arrived at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston,” the assertion mentioned.
NASA says the one astronaut who stays at Ascension is “in secure situation underneath remark as a precautionary measure.” NASA has not launched the identify of the crew member to guard that individual’s medical privateness and identification.
They lifted off into house on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 3, 2024, and spent greater than seven months on the house station conducting scientific analysis, together with on the shift of physique fluids throughout spaceflight and the way UV radiation and weightlessness have an effect on plant development.
Throughout their time on the house station, Crew-8 members additionally turned a part of a report variety of individuals orbiting Earth. When the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft introduced a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to the station in September, there have been a complete of 19 individuals in orbit, together with the astronauts on China’s Tiangong house station.
The Crew-8 mission was supposed to finish in August however was prolonged a number of occasions following issues through the take a look at flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
Starliner, which carried two NASA astronauts, skilled thruster issues because it approached the house station in June. NASA decided it was too dangerous for the crew to return to Earth on board Starliner and flew the spacecraft again to Earth empty in September.
The 2 Crew-9 mission members, who arrived on the station in September, will convey again the NASA astronauts left by Starliner, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, on the completion of their mission, which is about to finish in February 2025.
The return of Crew-8 was additionally delayed resulting from Hurricane Milton and unfavorable climate situations on the splashdown websites off Florida over the previous week.
NPR’s Russell Lewis and Central Florida Public Media’s Brendan Byrne contributed to this report.
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