Dragon Crew astronauts aboard a lifeboat shortly after landing in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday.
Bill Ingalls / NASA
SpaceX brought four astronauts back to Earth Sunday morning after six months of staying on the International Space Station, sending them to the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first night flight in the United States since Apollo 8 in 1968.
The crew of 1 astronaut, three Americans and one Japanese, landed near Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m. ET. This is the second time humans have returned to Earth with the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
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“We welcome you back to planet Earth and thank you for flying SpaceX,” moments after landing on Mission Control from SpaceX. “For those enrolled in our frequent flyer program, I earned 68 million miles on this trip.”
“We’ll cover that distance,” said spacecraft commander Colonel Mike Hopkins, moments after landing. “Is it transferable?”
Dragon Crew Capsules, called Endurance, Launched in November With NASA Astronauts Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker on board – along with Soichi Noguchi from Japanese space agency JAXA. The dissociation has left seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station, since then Crew mission 2 has arrived on the Endeavor spacecraft Earlier this week.
“All four crew members are in good shape, in great spirits and in very good shape,” NASA Aviation Director Holly Readings said at a press conference after the landing.
The 167-day stay for astronauts on the International Space Station is the longest for a crew launched from the United States, breaking the previous record of 84 days set by astronaut Skylab in 1974.
The last pre-dawn landing took place on December 27, 1968, when Apollo 8, the first manned flight to the moon, landed in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
