Four astronauts returned to Earth Saturday night following a five-month stay at the International Space Station.
The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew’s capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after they checked out of the station early Saturday morning. Their SpaceX flight home took less than 19 hours.
After the Dragon capsule landed just off the Florida coast near Tampa, NASA’s Nicole Mann — the first Native American woman to fly in space — called the return “one heck of a ride,” per theAssociated Press.
The capsule of the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft before landing.Keegan Barber/NASA via AP
“We’re happy to be home,” Mann said.
While their replacements arrivedmore than a week ago, the astronauts were kept at the space station for a few extra days since splashdown zones were experiencing high wind and waves, per the Associated Press.
The trip home also included Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, and NASA’s Josh Cassada. Mann, who is a member of Northern California’s Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, said she was looking forward to feeling of wind and the smell of grass; while Wakata was looking forward to sushi, Kikina was anticipating hot tea “from [a] real cup” and Cassada was looking forward to getting his family a rescue dog.
Four astronauts from the SpaceX crew returned home on Saturday night.NASA/Keegan Barber
Three Americans, three Russians and one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates remained at the space station. As the AP reports, the astronauts dealt with leaking Russian capsules and delivering areplacement craftfor other crew members during their time in space.
The four astronauts before their return home on Saturday.NASA via AP
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In other recent space news,*NSYNCalumLance Bass— acertified cosmonaut himself— is serving as the narrator of the new iHeart podcast,The Last Soviet.
The eight-part series — a production fromiHeartPodcastswith Kaleidoscope and Samizdat Audio — tells the story of Russian cosmonautSergei Krikalevand his 313 days in space amid the collapse of the USSR. At the time, “hell was Breaking loose in Russia,” Bass told PEOPLE, but the astronaut was committed to his work and just as committed to his country.
“Just to be stuck in space, it’s a scary thing,” Bass told PEOPLE last month. “You tell someone, ‘This guy got stuck in space for 313 days.’ How can anyone survive in space — and that’s not even the [International Space Station]. We’re talking about a smaller station where space madness really hits you. The fact that he survived that and still works in the space program today… He was a hero.”
“Hearing the things when he just got into the program at a young age — all the things he needed and had to go through in Star City, we went through the exact same training,” Bass said. “It’s just fascinating to hear your life go through this amazing hero of a cosmonaut.”
source: people.com
