Four astronauts have returned to Earth after spending nearly eight months on the Space Station, their return delayed by problems with the Boeing capsule and Hurricane Milton.
The astronauts were supposed to return to Earth two months ago PHOTO NASA / X
A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted to land before the early hours of Friday morning in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida, after detaching from the International Space Station earlier in the week, The Guardian reports.
The three Americans and one Russian were supposed to return two months ago, but their return was delayed because of problems with Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, which returned empty in September for safety reasons. Then Hurricane Milton messed up the plans, followed by another two weeks of high winds.
SpaceX launched four astronauts — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin — in March. Barratt, the only space veteran on this mission, thanked the support teams on Earth who had to “rethinking, reconfiguring and redoing everything with us… and they helped us face all these challenges.”
Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose mission went from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. These four will remain on station until February.
The Space Station has returned to its normal crew of seven — four Americans and three Russians — after months of being overcrowded.
