In the same SpaceX capsule that sent NASA’s Crew-10 mission to the station back in March, a crew of four completed their nearly five-month stay aboard the ISS on Saturday, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California under a canopy of parachutes.
The journey home took the spacecraft almost 17 hours, and after Friday’s undocking from the ISS, it ripped into the atmosphere at re-entry temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
During their stay on the station, the crew of Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi conducted more than 200 science experiments, including material studies and experiments to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body. These experiments helped prepare humans for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.
“We were able to do a number of truly incredible operational tasks. The mission’s pilot, NASA’s Nichole Ayers, said, “We had a great time together, had some really big belly laughs, and saw some amazing views.”
Both Ayers and his crewmate Peskov had never been in space before. It was McClain and Onishi’s second visit to the station.
A week ago, Crew-11, their successors, arrived at the station. JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, and NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke will spend about six months on the orbiting lab performing maintenance and science experiments.
SpaceX launched NASA astronauts to the ISS for the twelfth time with the mission. Following the Space Shuttle program’s retirement in 2011, the private business started transporting people to the station in 2020 as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, removing a dependency on Russia for transportation.
Although humans have been on the ISS continuously since October 31, 2000, NASA and its international partners intend to dismantle the space station by the end of the decade. In the upcoming ten years, NASA hopes that commercial corporations will launch additional space stations for its personnel.
The captain of Crew-10, McClain, stated prior to her departure, “We are all acutely aware that we may never get to do this again.” “We’ve been very pensive over the last days of understanding what we have all got to be a part of.”
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