NASA Crew 12 members gather for a portrait in the pressure suits they wore during departure from the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. From left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot.
NASA via Anil Menon
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NASA via Anil Menon
Three astronauts and a cosmonaut from NASA’s Crew-12 mission have returned safely to Earth after a nearly eight-month journey to the International Space Station.
The crew, commanded by Jessica Meir of NASA and pilot Jack Hathaway with mission specialists Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency and Andrey Fedyaev of the Russian company Roscosmos, splashed down Thursday in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles, California, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
Their return journey began about 45 minutes ago, at an orbital speed of 17,500 mph.
The spacecraft ignited its thrusters to push it out of orbit, causing the capsule to plunge into the atmosphere, its ablative heat shield battling extreme temperatures (up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit) during the fiery reentry. In about half an hour, the capsule slowed to a few hundred miles per hour, then four orange and white parachutes took over, propelling the spacecraft just 16 mph above the cool, blue ocean and gently plunging into the water.
The Crew-12 mission was the 20th time SpaceX sent humans into orbit, blasting off in February on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It docked with the space station the next day. During the eight months in space, NASA said the crew conducted dozens of experiments and scientific research, including studies of stem cells, crystal growth in space and bone loss in microgravity.
Not all of their work took place inside the space station. Meir conducted four spacewalks totaling just over 27 hours to perform maintenance and upgrade the aging orbital outpost. Adenot has carried out three spacewalks.
Before departure, the members of the Crew-12 mission were replaced by the three astronauts and cosmonauts of Crew-13, who arrived at the space station last week to begin a six-month rotation.
At a pre-departure news conference on the resort last month, Meir said she was looking forward to being reunited with her 3 1/2-year-old daughter.
But there was something else he was missing after all this time in orbit. “So I can’t wait to see nature again, to feel the breeze on my face, the wind rustling in the leaves. To experience all these things that we don’t have here,” she said.
The two-time space veteran said there are two things she will miss about space: weightlessness and the beautiful views of Earth.
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