The four astronauts of the Crew-5 mission successfully returned to Earth, completing a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
Four astronauts on a SpaceX spacecraft splashed down on Sunday, March 12, at 4:02 a.m. Kyiv time, off the coast of Florida. Thus ended their five-month stay on board the ISS. NASA astronauts Josh Kassada and Nicole Mann, Japanese Koichi Wakata and Anna Kikina from Russia returned from space, writes Space.
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The four astronauts spent 157 days on the ISS and for Mann, Kassada and Kikina it was the first flight into space. As for Koichi Wakata, he already has 505 days behind him, spent outside the Earth. After the Crew Dragon touched down on the surface of the water, after descent using special parachutes, Nicole Mann contacted the ground flight control team and said that the entire crew was happy to be at home. Rescue ships with SpaceX specialists arrived at the splashdown site and helped the astronauts to leave the spacecraft. Thus, four astronauts of the ISS for the first time in 157 days were able to breathe the earth’s air.
After the Crew Dragon spacecraft detached from the ISS hours earlier, it performed a series of maneuvers to set a course for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. NASA officials said the Crew Dragon lit up the night sky with a bright streak of light as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
NASA officials said the Crew Dragon lit up the night sky with a bright streak of light as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Photo: NASA
The four astronauts of the Crew-5 mission successfully returned to Earth, completing a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
Photo: NASA
This crew arrived at the ISS back in October last year, and all this time the astronauts have been conducting research experiments and servicing the orbital station, which is already over 20 years old. For several days before returning to Earth, the crew of the Crew-5 mission worked together with the crew of the Crew-6 mission, which flew into orbit on March 3. Focus has already written in detail about how this flight went and what gaps SpaceX faced.
Four astronauts on a SpaceX spacecraft splashed down on Sunday, March 12, at 4:02 a.m. Kyiv time, off the coast of Florida. Thus ended their five-month stay on board the ISS. NASA astronauts Josh Kassada and Nicole Mann returned from space, Japanese Koichi Wakata and Anna Kikina from Russia
Photo: NASA
As part of the Crew-5 mission, three historic events took place:
firstly, Nicole Mann became the first Native American to travel in space; secondly, Anna Kikina became the first Russian woman to fly into space on an American spacecraft; thirdly, Koichi Wakata set a record among Japanese astronauts, because he This is the fifth time he has been in space.
It is worth saying that another astronaut, Frank Rubio from NASA, could return home on this ship from SpaceX. After the accident on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft last December, the question arose about the return home of the three astronauts who arrived on it to the ISS.
In January of this year, the Crew Dragon ship was converted to carry another crew member. Two Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin were supposed to return home on the emergency Soyuz spacecraft. But in February, Roscosmos sent a new Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS to rescue all three astronauts, but they still remain at the station and their stay there may be delayed for several more months. Focus has already written in detail about this flight.
The four astronauts who arrived home in orbit were replaced by two Americans who arrived on the ISS on March 3 – Warren Hoburg and Stephen Bowen, one astronaut from the UAE – Sultana Al-Neyadi and Russian Andrei Fedyaev.
By the way, the flights of representatives of the Russian Federation, Kikina and Fedyaev, on SpaceX spacecraft became possible after the conclusion of an agreement between NASA and Roscosmos in July last year. Despite tensions between the US and Russia over the latter’s incursion into Ukraine, NASA has repeatedly stated that the partnership with Roscosmos is vital to the operation of the ISS.
