Four astronauts returned to Earth Friday after a stay of nearly eight months on the space station prolonged by problems with the Boeing capsule and Hurricane Milton.
A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Florida, after detaching from the International Space Station midweek.
The three Americans and one Russian should have been back two months ago. But their return was delayed by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which returned empty in September due to safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton struck, followed by two more weeks of high winds and rough seas.
SpaceX launched all four – NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, along with Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin – in March. Barratt, the only space veteran on the mission, credited his country’s support teams who had to “replan, retool and kind of redo everything with us…and helped us take all those hits.” .
Their replacements are two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission was extended from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. These four will be up there until February.
The space station is now back to its normal crew of seven – four Americans and three Russians – after months of being overwhelmed.
