Four astronauts splashed down off Los Angeles after eight months on the International Space Station, a homecoming delayed by capsule repairs after NASA’s first medical evacuation in decades.
SpaceX brought NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot, and Russia’s Andrey Fedyaev back to Earth on Thursday with a Pacific splashdown off the Los Angeles coast, the Associated Press reported from Cape Canaveral.
The crew left the orbiting lab on Wednesday. All four were out of the capsule within an hour aboard the SpaceX recovery ship, then headed for a helicopter ride to shore and on to Houston.
Meir radioed moments after splashdown with the simple relief of a long mission ended.
"We are so excited to be back on Planet Earth after an incredible mission on the International Space Station"
They had left the planet in February. Their launch was meant to replace four station occupants sent home early after NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, now retired, fell ill, the agency’s first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight.
Homecoming did not come on the original clock. Replacement crew arrived three weeks late because of capsule repairs, stalling the return and stretching the stay to a full eight months.
The mission was not idle time. Meir took part in four spacewalks. Adenot went outside three times for maintenance and upgrades. The crew marked the United States’ 250th birthday on the station, and Meir joined the Boston Pops with her piccolo for a Fourth of July concert from orbit.
Last month they threw a dance party. Two months into the flight they watched Artemis II astronauts fly around the moon. Meir even put out a how-to video for curly-haired women working in space.
Hathaway, a naval aviator by background, grew a classic Navy-style mustache before launch to honor those ties and kept it groomed aloft. By August it had become part of his identity on station.
"It’s kind of become a little bit of my brand up here, so I don’t know if it’ll go away right away or I’ll end up keeping it for a while."
While still in orbit, Meir described the emotional load of leaving a place few ever see.
"A lot of mixed, swirling emotions"
She said the crew would miss the “extraordinary views of our home planet.” Adenot, for her part, was eager to get back to water sports once gravity reclaimed her.
Seven astronauts remain on the International Space Station, representing the United States, Russia, and Canada. The outpost is 28 years old. By NASA’s count it has welcomed 298 visitors from 26 countries since the doors opened in 2000.
American hardware, a commercial SpaceX capsule, and a mixed U.S.-French-Russian crew closed another chapter on that continuous human presence. The recovery played out the way these returns are supposed to: splashdown, swift egress, helicopter to shore, then Houston for the medical and debrief grind that follows months in microgravity.
No injuries or mishaps were reported on the way home. The story of this crew is the work they finished, the delay they absorbed after Fincke’s evacuation, and the private spacecraft that brought them back to California waters.
When American crews come home on American commercial spacecraft, the country is doing something right, and the rest of the world still lines up to fly with them.
