Skip to main content

Four Crew-5 astronauts return home safe from International Space Station

A crew of four astronauts has returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS), splashing down  in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, late on Saturday, March 13. The Crew-5 astronauts traveled in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and made a parachute-assisted splashdown at 9:02 p.m. ET (6:02 p.m. PT), at which point, they were picked up using a recovery ship and taken back to Tampa to catch a plane to Houston.

The crew consisted of NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, plus Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina. The four have spent nearly six months on the orbiting space station, working on projects including scientific research and spacewalks to upgrade space station hardware.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, left, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, right, are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship Shannon shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, Saturday, March 11, 2023. Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina are returning after 157 days in space as part of Expedition 68 aboard the International Space Station.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina (from left), NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship Shannon shortly after having landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, March 11, 2023.  NASA/Keegan Barber

“Welcome home, Crew-5! This international crew has been conducting critical science experiments and technology demonstrations on the International Space Station that will help prepare us for future deep space missions and pave the way for our return to the Moon,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement. “Each advancement these explorers make is not an achievement for one, but a giant leap for all of humanity.”

The Crew-5 team had launched from Earth in October last year, carried in the same Crew Dragon spacecraft and launched by a Falcon 9 rocket. In total, the crew spent 156.5 days in space, according to NASA, and traveled 66,577,531 miles during that time.

The departure of this crew frees up some space on the ISS, which had been rather busy with 11 people on board until Crew-5 left. Now, the Expedition 68 crew consists of four astronauts recently arrived as Crew-6. Three more crewmembers are waiting to depart on a new Russian Soyuz spacecraft that was launched empty after their previous Soyuz sprang a serious coolant leak and was deemed to be potentially unsafe for humans to travel in due to the high temperatures that would be experienced when traveling back through Earth’s atmosphere.

Editors' Recommendations

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
How to watch SpaceX launch world’s most powerful rocket on Saturday
The Starship, comprising the first-stage Super Heavy and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft, on the launchpad at SpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

 

UPDATE: SpaceX has called off Friday's launch of the Starship and is now targeting Saturday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post that engineers need to replace a grid fin actuator on the first-stage Super Heavy booster, a part which helps to steer the vehicle back to Earth. This article has been updated with the new launch schedule.

Read more
SpaceX says it could fly Starship on Friday, but it depends on one thing
The Starship, comprising the first-stage Super Heavy and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft, on the launchpad at SpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX has said it could be in a position to perform the second launch of its next-generation Starship rocket this Friday, though it added that it can only happen once it’s received the nod from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

“Starship preparing to launch as early as November 17, pending final regulatory approval," SpaceX said in a recent post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Read more
Watch this unique view of SpaceX’s latest Starship rocket test
SpaceX tests its Starship rocket in a ground-based ignition.

As SpaceX continues to wait for the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the second test flight of its mighty Super Heavy rocket, the company recently conducted a ground-based test fire of the rocket’s upper stage, called Starship.

SpaceX posted footage showing the brief test fire from directly above (bottom video), with one of the Starship’s six Raptor engines powering up for about six seconds.

Read more