In this photo made from video provided by NASA, the SpaceX Dragon space capsule rose from the water after falling into the Gulf of Mexico early Friday. Photo: AP
Three American astronauts and a German astronaut returned to Earth on Friday in a SpaceX capsule after the stay of six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Americans Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, as well as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer, left the ISS the previous day at 05:20 GMT.
After a 23.5 -hour journey, the Dragon capsule they were traversing sped down the Florida coast at 00:43 (0443 GMT) on Friday.
“On behalf of the entire SpaceX team, welcome home,” a company official said after the splashdown.
Stopped the frightening descent by entering the Earth’s atmosphere and then by placing large parachutes.
The capsule that fell in the Gulf of Mexico area was rescued by a ship from Elon Musk’s company. Once aboard, the hatch was opened for the astronauts to escape.
The crew, named Crew-3, spent the last few days aboard the ISS conducting transfer operations along with Crew-4, which also consists of four astronauts (three Americans and one Italian). The new crew flew in from Florida last week, also aboard a SpaceX ship.
Astronauts Matthais Maurer, Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, sat inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft aboard the SpaceX Shannon recovery ship shortly after it landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida. (Photo: EFE)
On the ISS they also remain three russian cosmonautscame for their part on a Soyuz rocket.
This is the sixth landing of a manned SpaceX Dragon capsule, which regularly carries astronauts to the ISS for NASA.
Members of Crew-3 conducted various scientific experiments. They studied, for example, how cement hardens in the absence of gravity, something that could be very useful for future construction, for example on the Moon.
They also carried out the second harvest of peppers aboard the station.
During their stay, they also received a visit from a private mission, consisting of three businessmen who paid SpaceX tens of millions of dollars for travel to the ISS.
With information from the AFP
GRB
Source: Clarin
