Four astronauts have returned to Earth, having each completed their first long-duration spaceflight on the International Space Station (ISS).
Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg of NASA, Sultan Al Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates, and Andrey Vedyev of Russia’s Federal Space Corporation Roscosmos, collectively landed SpaceX’s Crew-6 crew aboard the company’s Dragon “Endeavour” spacecraft at twelve. :17 AM EDT (0417 GMT) on Monday (September 4) in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. Of the four, only Bowen had flown in space before.
“When we came here six months ago, it was a new experience for all of us,” Bowen said during a brief farewell ceremony aboard the station on Thursday (August 31). “I’ve been to space, but I’ve never been on a long-duration mission. This was an absolutely amazing experience, and a great opportunity to watch my amazing crewmates as they come.”
Related: SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts say goodbye from the International Space Station
We take It was launched on March 2ndThe landing of the Crew-6 astronauts ended their 186-day mission, serving as Flight Engineers for Expeditions 68 and Expedition 69 aboard the International Space Station.
They were originally scheduled to return home on Sunday morning (September 3), but adverse weather conditions extended their stay in orbit by one day.
“It was definitely an experience of a lifetime and a real honor to spend six very short months living and working aboard such an amazing orbital station,” Warren said at the same ceremony. “I think we’ve accomplished a lot. We started with SpaceX [Commercial Resupply Services or CRS] 27 on the spot, a cargo vehicle full of flag. And later, we had SpaceX [CRS] 28 missions, as we welcomed b Axiom crew visit on board.”
“We’ve done three spacewalks among our sixth crew. We’ve been put on a Cygnus ship [cargo] trolley. “We’ve done a lot of maintenance, and we hope to leave the space station a little better than we found it,” Warren said.
The four astronauts left the space station on Sunday, with the Dragon Endeavor spacecraft separating independently from Port Harmony facing space at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT).
For Al Neyadi, it was not only his first trip, but the first long-term expedition undertaken by an Arab and an Emirati. He just The second Emirati astronaut to flyafter the short week-long mission to the space station by Hazzaa al-Mansoori in 2019. The first Arab in space, Prince Sultan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, lifted off on a NASA space shuttle in 1985.
“We had good communication with many people around the world, so it was really cool – especially for my region,” Al Neyadi said. “I’m from a place where human spaceflight stopped over 30 years ago, and I felt it my duty to show what’s going on with the station. I think it was a little push towards getting our region excited.”
Al-Neyadi was responsible for the selection Crew-6 Zero Gravity IndexShe is a small plush doll for the mascot of the UAE astronaut programme, Suhail, who also returned to Earth on Monday aboard the Dragon spacecraft.
Fedyaev is the second Russian cosmonaut and the first Russian man in history to intentionally do so Return from space to land on water. His flight aboard the SpaceX spacecraft was part of a seat swap agreement between NASA and Roscosmos.
SpaceX’s recovery boats, including the “Megan” — named after NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, one of the first women to fly aboard the SpaceX Dragon — were positioned near the landing point and were quickly on hand to help recover the craft. satellite and its crew. from water.
With Crew-6 back on Earth, the space station’s Expedition 69 continues with NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Jasmine Mugbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and astronauts Roscosmos Sergey Prokopyev, and Dmitry. Petlin and Konstantin Borisov. Expedition 70 will begin when Russia’s Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft departs the station in late September with Prokopev, Betelin and Rubio aboard, the latter setting a new US record for time in a single space mission of 371 days.
Crew-6 was SpaceX’s sixth crew rotation flight for NASA, the seventh manned spaceflight in support of NASA, and the ninth human spaceflight in the company’s history. The crew is marked 6 Fourth flight of Endeavorwhich earlier flew Demo-2, Crew-2, and Axiom-1 missions to and from the space station.
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