™Four Astronauts Splash Down Off L.A. After 237 Days in Space
NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 capsule, Freedom, hit the Pacific at 8:34 a.m. after 3,792 orbits and more than 100 million miles.
A SpaceX capsule named Freedom splashed down in the Pacific off Los Angeles at 8:34 a.m. Thursday, carrying four people who'd left Earth in February.
The landing closed out NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 mission, which kept its crew aboard the International Space Station for 237 days, the Los Angeles Times reported. In that time they racked up more than 100 million miles and went around the planet 3,792 times, NASA said in a statement.
Aboard were NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA's mission blog said as it logged the splashdown. For Meir and Fedyaev, it was a second trip up. Hathaway and Adenot were rookies.
They launched Feb. 13 and reached the station the next day, which means they skipped spring and summer down here entirely.
A good chunk of the time went outside the hatch. Meir made four spacewalks, according to NASA, pushing her career count to seven, the third-most of any woman at the agency. Adenot made three, and she became the first French woman to go out the door of the station.
Inside, the work was mostly about the human body. The crew tested ways to produce stem cells, made IV fluid in orbit and then put it through its paces, and studied how the bacteria behind pneumonia can do lasting harm to the heart, the Times reported.
They also ran nutrition studies and looked at whether a person's physical traits may change how blood flows in spaceflight. The goal is keeping future crews safe and healthy. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the work will pay off for future exploration and for the planet, too.
Dana Weigel, who manages NASA's Low Earth Orbit Program at Johnson Space Center, said in the statement that the agency was "thrilled to welcome Jessica, Jack, Sophie, and Andrey home."
Home doesn't start right away. The four were set for medical screenings after leaving the water, officials said, before a flight back to Johnson Space Center in Houston, where NASA had scheduled a Thursday afternoon news conference for the crew to talk about their science.
Source: Los Angeles Times, retrieved October 9, 2026. Other sources: nasa.gov.
Comments 0