Four astronauts successfully returned home to Earth in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft today, ending their six-month stay on the International Space Station (ISS). After disembarking from the ISS early Thursday morning, the crew dived through the Earth’s atmosphere before exploding under parachutes off the coast of Florida at 00:43 ET.
On board the Crew Dragon were three NASA astronauts – Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron – as well as German astronaut Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency. Astronauts, part of a mission called Crew-3, launched into space in the same Crew Dragon in November. Since joining the ISS, they have lived and worked in the orbital laboratory, conducted scientific experiments and maintained the station through space travel.
The astronauts of Crew-3 also had a very eventful stay in space. Shortly after arriving on the ISS, Russia destroyed one of its own surface-to-air missile satellites, creating a cloud of debris that initially threatened the integrity of the space station. Immediately after the destruction of the satellite, Crew-3 astronauts and Russian astronauts aboard the ISS had to take shelter inside their spacecraft in case the wreckage damaged the space station and they had to flee quickly. Fortunately for the residents of the station, the wreckage did not damage the ISS and the crew was able to return to a normal work schedule.
A few months after the incident, Russia invaded Ukraine, raising tensions between the United States and Russia on Earth. This has led many to question the stability of the ISS partnership between NASA and Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, and there were fears that operations aboard the space station could be affected. Eventually, the Crew-3 astronauts continued to work as planned with their Russian counterparts and even welcomed a new crew of Russian astronauts to the station in March. As Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin continues to hint at a possible end to the ISS agreement with Russia, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson assured Congress on May 3 that he was on board the ISS as usual and that Russia had not yet withdrawn from the ISS. partnership.
The safe return of Crew-3 marks the end of another routine human space mission to the ISS for both SpaceX and NASA. SpaceX has a contract with NASA to periodically send astronauts to and from the International Space Station, part of an initiative called the Commercial Crew Program. Crew-3 was SpaceX’s third operational mission to the ISS for NASA, as well as the company’s eighth time to launch astronauts into space.
Now that Crew-3 is safely back on Earth, the next SpaceX and NASA mission will begin in earnest. On April 27, three NASA astronauts and an Italian astronaut from the European Space Agency launched another Crew Dragon into the ISS as part of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission. The Crew-3 astronauts were on board to greet them and help them get acquainted with the ISS. Crew-4 astronauts are scheduled to stay on the ISS until the fall.
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