Four astronauts splash down off Florida after six months in space

Washington– A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts splashed down off the coast of Florida in the early hours of Friday, ending a six-month mission at the International Space Station, dpa reported.

NASA’s Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, along with German astronaut Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency, arrived back on Earth about 24 hours after undocking from the station.

The Crew Dragon capsule could be seen streaking across the night sky before four parachutes were deployed to slow down the spacecraft’s re-entry.

“Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth,” SpaceX tweeted. Elon Musk’s SpaceX began flying crews to and from the space station in 2020. SpaceX brought four astronauts – three from the US and one from Italy – to the human outpost last week to replace the four that returned on Friday.

Maurer is only the twelfth German to have been to space and his trip has been closely followed in the country since the blast-off on November 11 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 52-year-old is due back in Germany by Friday evening.

Source: Saudi Press Agency