General
SpaceX completes night splashdown to return four astronauts from International Space Station
SpaceX has safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot in 1968.
Key points:
- The 167-day mission was the longest for astronauts launching from the US
- SpaceX chose a night-time splashdown to take advantage of calm weather
- The US Coast Guard enforced an exclusion zone around the capsule
The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3:00am local time, ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company.
It was an express trip home, lasting just six and a half hours.
The astronauts, three American and one Japanese, flew back in the same capsule — named Resilience — in which they…
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