SpaceX Dragon Endurance Safely Returns Crew-3 Astronauts Back To Earth

Astronauts who flew to the International Space Station as part of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission have returned to Earth after nearly six months on the orbiting labouratory. 

They splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday at 12:43 a.m. ET onboard the Crew Dragon Endurance, which flew with the same crew for the first time in November 2021, and NASA has taken rather stunning night footage of the occasion.

And… splashdown! Dragon has safely made it home with precious cargo aboard: four #Crew3 astronauts!

Now they wait for the recovery vehicle, which is named after Shannon Walker, mission specialist for the first crewed @SpaceX mission to the @Space_Station: pic.twitter.com/VDDXdsxkbH

— NASA (@NASA) May 6, 2022

Shortly after the splashdown, the rescue team extracted NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Tom Marshburn, as well as ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, from the capsule.

Marshburn, the flight's only veteran astronaut, did his fifth spacewalk during the mission. For the other three, it was their first ISS mission, with Maurer becoming only the second ESA astronaut to fly onboard a Dragon spacecraft.

The #Crew3 mission is officially complete!

After launching from Kennedy on Nov. 10, 2021, @SpaceX's Dragon Endurance splashed down off the coast of Florida today at 12:43am ET, bringing @Astro_Raja, @AstroMarshburn, Kayla Barron, and @Astro_Matthias home: https://t.co/wGNaM6g04x pic.twitter.com/48fiA9sNca

— NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) May 6, 2022

The Crew-3 astronauts were in orbit for 177 days and had a great start.

When the ISS traveled perilously close to a field of orbital debris shortly after its arrival, all of the astronauts on board were forced to seek safety in their transport vessel.

The debris was ultimately identified as coming from a Russian missile test that damaged one of the country's satellites, according to the US State Department.

Two NASA astronauts, one JAXA astronaut, and one Russian cosmonaut are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in September.

After Crew-4 launched to the station in April, this will be the fifth crewed NASA Commercial Crew voyage.