Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after nearly eight months at the International Space Station, extended due to problems with Boeing's capsule and the effects of Hurricane Milton. Before dawn, the SpaceX capsule in which they traveled parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida after departing from the ISS mid-week.
The four astronauts were supposed to have returned two months ago. But their return was delayed due to issues with Boeing's new crew capsule Starliner, which conducted a test flight in September for safety reasons. Then, Hurricane Milton thwarted their plans, followed by two weeks of rough seas and strong winds. SpaceX had taken the four crew members — Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps from NASA, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin — to the orbital outpost in March.
"Barratt, the only mission member with previous space experience, thanked the ground support teams who had to rethink, re-equip, and rebuild everything alongside us (...) and helped us cope with all those setbacks." Their replacements are the two test pilots of the Starliner, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose mission went from an expected duration of eight days to eight months, along with the two astronauts who flew with SpaceX four weeks ago. The four will be at the ISS until February.
Thus, the crew of the Space Station returns to its usual size of seven people — four Americans and three Russians — after months of overcrowding.
