Four astronauts of the Crew-6 mission completed their six-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS) and landed near the coast of Florida. This event was the first landing of astronauts in the United States since May 2023.
NASA broadcast all the key moments of this historic return to Earth. After undocking from the ISS, the Crew Dragon capsule began its descent into the denser layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. The images from the last moments before landing are striking in their drama.
In the first video, you can see how the engines of the Crew Dragon spacecraft are moving away from the space station. The next video shows the moment when the Crew Dragon capsule landed in the water near Florida.
Dragon’s Draco thrusters firing pic.twitter.com/Dlux9wWfyS
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 3, 2023
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, Steve, @Astro_Woody, Andrey, and @Astro_Alneyadi! pic.twitter.com/ph27m0wP30
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 4, 2023
This SpaceX Crew-6 mission was the fourth in space for astronaut Stephen Bowen, who previously participated in the shuttle missions STS-126 in 2008, STS-132 in 2010 and STS-133 in 2011. But it was the first space flight for astronauts Woody Hoburg, Sultan Al-Neyadi and Andrey Fedyaev. Al-Neyadi also set several records by spending more time in space than any Arab astronaut before him, and became the first Arab to perform a spacewalk.
Before returning, Crew-6 had the opportunity to spend several days with Crew-7 astronauts in orbit, who arrived at the ISS aboard another SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on August 27.
Recall that the ISS crew has been working on a rotational basis since November 2000. The station will continue to accept astronauts until 2030, after which it is planned to be decommissioned. Probably by that time, at least one private space station will already be built in orbit, which will continue to develop space for future generations.
NASA also published a selection of photos of the Crew-6 mission, which it published on its official Flickr page.
Earlier we reported on how the first private spacewalk would be postponed to 2024.
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