Stare SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronauts return to Earth today after nearly 5 months in space

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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 Re-Entry and Splashdown – YouTube

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SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday (Aug. 9) after living on the International Space Build for nearly 5 months.

The mission’s Crew Dragon capsule, named Patience, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the California flit at 11:33 a.m. EDT (1533 GMT; 8:33 a.m. native California time).

“From the entire Crew-10, thank you,” radioed Anne McClain, NASA astronaut and Dragon commander, shortly after splashdown. “It was truly the ride of a lifetime.”

SpaceX’s Crew-10 astronaut mission returns to Earth off the flit of San Diego, California on Aug. 9, 2025. (List credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

As its name suggests, Crew-10 used to be the Tenth operational astronaut mission that SpaceX has flown to and from the International Space Build (ISS) for NASA, by technique of the company’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

The crewmembers had been McClain and Nichole Ayers of NASA, Takuya Onishi of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos, Russia’s space company. McClain commanded Crew-10, Ayers used to be the pilot and Onishi and Peskov had been mission specialists.

The flight launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 14 and arrived at the orbiting lab two days later. Crew-10’s four astronauts shortly scheme to conducting science work, which consumed valuable of their time over the ensuing months.

“During their stay in space, the crew studied space-caused mental and physical changes in astronauts, blood flow from the brain to the heart, future lunar navigation techniques and more,” NASA officials wrote in a weblog submit on Monday (Aug. 4).

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The wheels for Crew-10’s departure began turning closing Saturday (Aug. 2), when SpaceX’s four-particular person Crew-11 mission arrived at the ISS. The Crew-10 astronauts spent a pair of days advising their replacements, then scheme their minds to gearing up for the return to Earth — and reflecting on their orbital trip.

“We got to accomplish a lot of really amazing operational things,” Ayers talked about during a farewell ceremony on Tuesday (Aug. 5).

“We got to see some amazing views, and we have had some really big belly laughs and a wonderful time together,” she added. “I think that [we’re] leaving with a heart full of gratitude, and [we’re] excited to see where the International Space Station goes after we get home.”

The hatches between Patience and the ISS closed on Friday (Aug. 8) at 4:20 p.m. EDT (2020 GMT), and the capsule undocked about two hours later, at 6:15 p.m. EDT (2205 GMT). Patience then began maneuvering its design assist to Earth, setting up its splashdown today.

It used to be the first Pacific Ocean return for a SpaceX CCP mission; all old such flights luxuriate in attain down off the Florida flit. SpaceX just today shifted to West Flit reentries for all of its Dragon missions, every crewed and uncrewed, to minimize the probability that falling space particles may perchance well perchance injure property or injure folk.

Crew-10 wasn’t the first SpaceX astronaut mission of any form to land in the Pacific, then again; the non-public Fram2 and Axiom 4 flights did so earlier this 12 months.

Crew-10 used to be the first spaceflight for Ayers and Peskov and the 2d for McClain and Onishi. Onishi served as commander of the ISS’ most up-to-date Expedition 73 from April unless this past Tuesday, when he handed the reins over to cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov.

Editor’s gift: This story used to be up to date at noon ET on Aug. 9 with news of winning splashdown.

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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Author with Space.com and joined the personnel in 2010. He essentially covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, however has been identified to dabble in the space art beat. His e book about the learn about alien existence, “Out There,” used to be printed on Nov. 13, 2018. Earlier than becoming a science creator, Michael labored as a herpetologist and natural world biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s stage from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his most up-to-date project is, you’re going to be in a set to be conscious Michael on Twitter.

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