LOS ANGELES: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down safely off the coast of the southeastern U.S. state of Florida on Saturday, NASA said.
The four-member international crew, consisting of NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, at 9:02 p.m. Eastern Time (0202 Sunday GMT).
The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 2:20 a.m. Saturday Eastern Time (0720GMT).
The mission was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 5 last year and docked to the space station the next day.
After splashing down safely in their Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 completed the agency’s fifth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station. The international crew of four spent 157 days in orbit.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted splashdown at 9:02 p.m. EST. –Agencies
