An international crew of four astronauts returned to Earth early Monday after spending six months in orbit aboard the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour capsule streaked through the sky over Cape Canaveral toward a splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville.
"Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, Steve, @Astro_Woody, Andrey, and @Astro_Alneyadi!" SpaceX posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Returning after 186 days in orbit were NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, Russia's Andrei Fedyaev and the United Arab Emirates' Sultan al-Neyadi, the first person from the Arab world to spend an extended time in orbit.
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Their homecoming was delayed a day because of poor weather at the splashdown locations.
The crew traveled 78,875,292 miles and completed 2,976 orbits around Earth during their mission, NASA said in a news release.
"This international crew represented three nations, but together they demonstrated humanity’s shared ambition to reach new cosmic shores," NASA said. "The contributions of Crew-6 will help prepare NASA to return to the Moon under Artemis, continue onward to Mars, and improve life here on Earth."
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Before departing the space station, the crew said they were craving hot showers, steaming cups of coffee and the ocean air since arriving in March.
The crew’s replacements docked at the ISS on Aug. 27.
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Another crew switch will occur later this month with the long-awaited homecoming of two Russians and one American who have been up there an entire year. Their stay was doubled after their Soyuz capsule leaked all of its coolant and a new craft had to be launched.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
