SpaceX’s history-making mission has returned to Earth  

The Crew-5 mission is unique

SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission has safely returned to Earth aboard the company’s “Endurance” Dragon craft, which ran aground off the coast of Florida. The four astronauts it carried remained for 5 months on the International Space Station, in a mission that had many firsts.

First the mission included Nicole Mann, the first Native American to fly into space. It was also the first time a Russian cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, boarded a private US spacecraft thanks to a prized deal between NASA and Roscosmos last year, despite rising tensions between the two countries over the war in Ukraine.

For Japan’s Koichi Wakata, it was the fifth space mission, setting a domestic record. This was the second mission of SpaceX’s Endurance capsule, following the successful return of Crew-3 last fall. The capsule will return to SpaceX headquarters in Florida for inspection and preparation for its next flight.

Recall that a NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts had “run out” on the ISS due to a coolant leak in the Russian Soyuz MS-22 capsule, but Roscosmos sent another Soyuz to pick them up last week and they also returned with security on Earth.