The four members of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission are back on Earth after a record time in space completing their mission with a splashdown aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour early Friday off the coast of Florida.
After a nearly eight-month stay on board the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin closed the hatch and undocked from the station at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday.
The spacecraft then autonomously undocked and made the 34-hour trip home landing at 3:29 a.m. off the coast of Pensacola marking more than 235 days in space for the quartet.
"On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home," mission control called out moments after splashdown.
"What an incredible ride," replied Crew-8 commander Dominick.
The quartet launched from Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket back on March 4 arriving to the ISS one day later. It was originally aiming to come home in August, but its return was first put on hold because of the delayed departure of Boeing's Starliner that was docked alongside Endeavour.
Since the ISS has only two ports that can handle Starliner or Dragon spacecraft, the Crew-9 replacement mission to the ISS was not able to fly up until Starliner left. Even after Crew-9's arrival in September, Hurricane Milton and other poor weather off the coast of Florida delayed Crew-8's return flight even further.
They were docked to the ISS for 232 days, which is a record stay for the Dragon spacecraft at the station, and during which the crew were part of Expeditions 70, 71 and 72.
That stretched the 210 days the spacecraft had previously been cleared to remain in space.
Endeavour, which was named in deference to Space Shuttle Endeavour, has now completed its fifth trip to space, making it the longest cumulative time in space for any U.S. spacecraft in addition to setting the new record for longest single spaceflight for a U.S. spacecraft.
"We're looking to certify beyond a fifth flight further and we'll work with NASA on the definitive certification process with them," said SpaceX's Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build & flight reliability, in a post-landing press conference. "I think we'll definitely be extending the crew life beyond the current flights out toward 10 or so."
The mission's deorbit sequence began at 2:32 a.m. with just over an hour to go ahead of its parachute-assisted landing. The trunk was jettisoned allowing for spacecraft's nine-minute-long deorbit burn, which was completed at 2:48 a.m.
That set up Dragon to close its forward nose cone with the spacecraft committed to its trip back through the atmosphere.
"The team right now is tracking no issues on Dragon and our landing site," said SpaceX mission control. "Weather still looking beautiful, with a wind speed of 3 knots, a wave height of half a foot, and a wave period of six seconds."
"That is tremendous, tremendous news," Dominick replied.
Its path took it over the Gulf of Mexico with temperatures on reentry nearing 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit going more than 17,500 mph.
"This is why we see once the Dragon splashes down, we see that the exterior, which was a nice, pristine white at liftoff, and while it was on orbit, becomes more like a toasted marshmallow after it comes back," said SpaceX commentator Kate Tice. "We see that thermal protection system having done its job in protecting the structure of the capsule as well as the astronauts inside."
It slowed to about 350 mph before its pair of drogue parachutes opened on descent followed by its four main parachutes to slow it further to a gentle 15 mph at splashdown.
SpaceX's recovery vessel Megan was on site to meet the capsule. It was hoisted onto to the ship before 4 a.m. with crew exiting the spacecraft less than an hour after landing.
Dominick exited first, with all four crew a little wobbly and helped onto gurneys not being used to gravity after such a long stay in space, but all giving thumbs up, waves and handshakes to recovery crew on board the ship. After medical checks, the quartet were to fly by helicopter back to the Florida coast and then head to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for a reunion with family.
Only Barratt, chosen as a NASA astronaut in 2000, had previous flight experience having traveled on both the final flight of Space Shuttle Discovery in 2011 and a Soyuz mission to the ISS in 2009. He has spent more than 446 days in space across all three missions.
Epps was the last of her class of NASA astronauts chosen in 2009 to make it to space. Dominick was chosen in 2017 and Grebenkin in 2018.
SpaceX Crew-8 launches after tense discovery of crack on hatch seal
Crew-8 had been preparing to depart since welcoming the Crew-9 mission's Crew Dragon Freedom to the ISS on Sept. 29, which brought up NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
That duo will stay at the ISS as part of Expedition 72 for another five months with a planned return home next February with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the ISS since June 6 after arriving on Boeing's Starliner on the Crew Flight Test mission.
Starliner flew back to Earth minus its crew as NASA opted to keep Williams and Wilmore safely on board the ISS after concerns with Starliner's propulsion system. That pair will become the first astronauts to fly on both Starliner and Crew Dragon when they return.
Crew-9's arrival brought the ISS population temporarily up to 11, but with Crew-8's departure, that dropped back to seven.
"Endeavour, departing, fair winds and flowing seas," said Williams who became the Expedition 72 commander as part of her extended stay.
"So long Dragon, the circle will never be the same without you," added Williams.
"Station, Dragon, it's been an absolute pleasure to serve aboard the space station and stay on the watch. It's in great hands. Godspeed," replied Dominick as the Dragon maneuvered away from the station.
Endeavour was the first SpaceX Crew Dragon to fly with humans back in 2020 and is the fleet leader having also completed the Demo-2, Crew-2, Axiom Space Ax-1 and Crew-6 missions, all of which docked with the ISS.
It's one of four active Crew Dragon spacecraft that have now flown 15 crewed missions carrying 56 humans through space, including five private missions on top of the 10 flown for NASA so far.
SpaceX has at least four more Crew Dragon missions already planned in the next nine months with both Crew-10 in February, Crew-11 next July, the fourth Axiom Space trip to the ISS and a private polar orbital mission called Fram2, both of which could fly in the spring.