Four astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station in a scenic splashdown Thursday morning in the Pacific Ocean off the Southern California coast. The SpaceX crew capsule deployed its giant parachutes high above the ocean to slow its descent, landing in the water at about 8:3 5 a.m. PT. The capsule was carrying NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (commander) and Jack Hathaway (pilot), European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot (mission specialist) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev (mission specialist). The journey home started Wednesday when the Dragon spacecraft undocked from the ISS. Before splashdown, the capsule fired its engines to leave orbit and entered Earth’s atmosphere, where its heat shield protected the crew from extreme temperatures. The capsule was hoisted on the the recovery vessel, where there crew was expected to board a helicopter for the journey to the mainland. The crew aboard the “Freedom” capsule, known as Crew-12, launched from Florida Feb. 13. They spent 235 days aboard the ISS, conducting scientific research that included testing stem cell production, studying how spaceflight affected blood flow, preparing for deep space exploration, seeing how protein crystals grow in space, microgravity’s effects on bone density and testing a new prototype space suit. The astronauts also worked outside the space station to maintain and upgrade systems. The crew completed four spacewalks. Crew-12 was replaced by Crew-13, which includes commander Jessica Watkins and her crew. Crew-13’s stay will last a six months, but the flight to the ISS was the quickest yet for SpaceX and NASA due in large part to the station’s location when the astronauts launched. Watkins became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit. A geologist who worked with NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity a decade ago, Watkins is making her second trip to the space station following a lengthy stay in 2022. The others are newcomers to space: NASA’s Luke Delaney, a retired Marine; Canada’s Joshua Kutryk, a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force; and Russia’s Sergey Teteryatnikov, a former submariner. They will replace four astronauts who have been living at the orbiting laboratory since February. This was the 13th crew launched by SpaceX for NASA, not counting 2020’s test flight. ...read more read less