(Washington) The crew of the Crew-5 mission sent into space by a SpaceX rocket on behalf of NASA returned to Earth on Saturday, after a five-month mission on the International Space Station, according to images from the American agency.
The “Endurance” capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after 9 p.m. off the west coast of Florida, with Japan’s Koichi Wakata, Russia’s Anna Kikina, and NASA’s Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada on board. .
Crew-5, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida last October, was Koichi Wakata’s fifth space mission and the first of the other members, allowing Nicole Mann to become the first Native American sent to space, NASA explained. .
Before leaving the ISS, the crew met that of Crew-6, which left on 1er March from the same place to take over.
Less than a week earlier, a Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off from Kazakhstan to replace the MS-22 spacecraft, also Russian, which was damaged while docking with the ISS.
The three members of MS-22, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts, were originally due to return to Earth at the end of March after a six-month mission, but will ultimately stay for almost a year.
Cooperation on the International Space Station has become one of the last areas where Washington and Moscow continue to work together since Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago.