The four astronauts successfully returned to earth on the SpaceX manned dragon spacecraft in the early morning of May 6 local time, ending their six-month stay on the international space station (ISS) After decoupling from the international space station early Thursday morning, the crew crossed the earth's atmosphere and landed under a parachute off the coast of Florida at 00:43 a.m. Eastern time.
On board the manned dragon spacecraft were three NASA astronauts - Tom marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron - and an ESA German astronaut Matthias Maurer. These astronauts are all part of the crew-3 mission. They were launched into space in the same spacecraft as early as November. Since the ISS, they have been living and working in this orbital laboratory, conducting scientific experiments and maintaining the space station through spacewalk.
Crew-3 astronauts have encountered quite a lot in space. Shortly after they arrived at the international space station, Russia destroyed one of its satellites with a ground-based missile, resulting in a mass of debris, which initially threatened the integrity of the space station. After the satellite was destroyed, crew-3 astronauts and Russian astronauts on the space station had to hide in their spacecraft to prevent the resulting debris from damaging the space station. Fortunately for the residents of the space station, the debris did not damage it and the astronauts were able to resume their normal work plan.
A few months after that incident, Russia took military action against Ukraine, which undoubtedly increased the tension between the United States and Russia on earth. This has led many to question the stability of the International Space Station partnership between NASA and Roscosmos, and there are concerns that the operation of the space station may be affected. Finally, crew-3 astronauts and their Russian colleagues continued to work as planned. They even welcomed a new crew of Russian astronauts into the space station in March. Although Dmitry Rogozin, director of the Russian space agency, continued to suggest that Russia's International Space Station agreement might end, NASA Director Bill Nelson assured the US Congress on May 3 that everything was as usual on ISS and Russia had not withdrawn from cooperation at present.
The safe return of crew-3 marks the end of another conventional human space mission of SpaceX and NASA. SpaceX has signed a contract with NASA to regularly send astronauts to and from the international space station as part of an initiative called the commercial crew program. Crew-3 is SpaceX's Third International Space Station Mission for NASA and the company's eighth astronaut launch into space.
Now that crew-3 has safely returned to earth, the next mission of SpaceX and NASA will officially begin. On April 27 local time, three NASA astronauts and an Italian ESA astronaut were launched to the space station in another manned dragon spacecraft, which is part of the SpaceX crew-4 mission. Crew-3 astronauts greet them in space and help them get familiar with the international space station. Crew-4 astronauts are expected to stay at ISS until autumn.