After 157 days in space, NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina have safely splashed down in the SpaceX Dragon Endurance in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida.
The international crew of four completed the agency’s fifth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station, traveling 66,577,531 miles during their mission and completing 2512 orbits around Earth.
Teams on the Shannon recovery ship are in the process of securing Dragon and ensuring the spacecraft is safe for the recovery effort. Once the spacecraft is safe, the recovery ship will hoist Dragon onto the main deck of Shannon with the astronauts inside. After medical checks, the crew will be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
During their time on the International Space Station, the Crew-5 team contributed to a host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations. They tested hydroponic and aeroponic techniques to grow plants without using soil, released Uganda and Zimbabwe’s first satellites, and studied how liquids move in a container in simulated lunar gravity to generate data to improve Moon rover designs.
Additionally, they grew dwarf tomatoes in efforts to address the need for a continuous fresh-food production capability in space and reinstalled the station’s bioprinting facility as a stepping stone in long-term plans to manufacture whole human organs in space.
The Crew-5 flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which aims to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit.
This already is providing additional research time and has increased the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity’s microgravity testbed for exploration, including helping NASA prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
