Four astronauts safely returned to Earth on Friday following a nearly eight-month stay at the International Space Station (ISS), which was prolonged due to issues with Boeing’s capsule and Hurricane Milton.
A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast before dawn, having undocked from the ISS earlier in the week. The crew, consisting of three Americans—NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps—and one Russian astronaut, Alexander Grebenkin, was originally scheduled to return two months ago.
Their homecoming was delayed due to complications with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which returned empty in September over safety concerns. Additionally, Hurricane Milton disrupted their plans, leading to further delays from two weeks of high winds and rough seas.
Barratt, the only veteran astronaut on this mission, expressed gratitude to the support teams back on Earth for their adaptability, noting, “They had to replan, retool, and kind of redo everything right along with us…and helped us to roll with all those punches.”
The astronauts’ replacements, Boeing test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, were initially scheduled for an eight-day mission, but theirs has now extended to eight months. They are joined by two astronauts who were launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. This crew will remain at the ISS until February.
With the return of the four astronauts, the space station has resumed its normal crew size of seven, comprising four Americans and three Russians, after experiencing months of overflow.
