Four astronauts return to Earth in a pre-dawn SpaceX capsule splashdown
While most of the U.S. was sleeping on Saturday night into Sunday morning, four astronauts aboard the International Space Station made the journey back home.
NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins, and Shannon Glover, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), boarded their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, dubbed Resilience, at 8:35 p.m. ET on Saturday. Six and a half hours later, all four were safely back on Earth, splashing down off the coast of Florida at 2:56 a.m. ET.
The timing of their arrival is notable here. This was the first nighttime splashdown for a crewed U.S. spacecraft since the Apollo 8 returned to Earth in 1968.
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The overnight journey for the four astronauts completed a trip that started on Nov. 15, 2020 when a SpaceX rocket carried the same four astronauts skyward, with a "Baby Yoda" plush doll in tow. There's been no word on the status of the Baby Yoda doll. In total, the astronauts spent 168 days in orbit, with 167 of those days spent aboard the ISS (the rest was transit time).
This marks the second successful splashdown as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which sees the space agency working with outside interests like SpaceX to send American astronauts into space aboard U.S. built rockets that lift off from U.S. soil. Another SpaceX mission, dubbed Crew-2, is already underway, after a successful launch in late April that ferried two NASA astronauts, one JAXA astronaut, and a European Space Agency astronaut to the ISS.
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The Resilience splashdown wasn't the flashiest thing to watch given the time of day, but it was a safe and successful one. It's the only thing that matters, really. And, importantly, the arriving astronauts are thrilled to be home.
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Topics SpaceX
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
