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SpaceX's Crew-8 returns NASA astronauts to Earth after seven months

Topline

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft crashed off the coast of Florida on Friday, bringing back a crew of Russian and American astronauts who had spent seven months aboard the International Space Station after a series of delays and problems with Boeing's Starliner capsule.

Important facts

The SpaceX mission's Dragon spacecraft, named Crew-8, jetted off around 3:30 p.m I died at 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday after undocking from the International Space Station late Wednesday.

On board Dragon are Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps from NASA and Alexander Grebenkin from the Russian space agency Roscomos, who each arrived at the ISS on March 5th.

According to NASA, the crew's return was scheduled for mid-August. However, the mission was extended so that the Dragon spacecraft could be used by NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in case an evacuation from the ISS was necessary.

Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS aboard Starliner in June, but the spacecraft returned to Earth unmanned in September after a series of technical problems prevented the two astronauts from using it.

Crew-8's return flight was also delayed several times due to Hurricane Milton, which caused NASA to abort a docking attempt on October 7, and other poor weather conditions around splash sites off the coast of Florida.

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What you should pay attention to

NASA announced in August that it would cut the roster for SpaceX's Crew 9 mission, which launched Sept. 24 toward the ISS, to allow Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth at the end of the mission. The crew, including Williams and Wilmore, is scheduled to return in February 2025 along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Important background

The Crew 8 mission was SpaceX's 13th human-transport mission and the eighth time NASA has hired Elon Musk's company to fly a crew to the ISS. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the crew will conduct more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations on the orbiting station in preparation for further human space exploration. The astronauts experimented with stem cells to study degenerative diseases, studied the effects of weightlessness and UV radiation on plants, and examined whether pressure cuffs could reduce health problems in astronauts. NASA has other crewed missions planned aboard the SpaceX spacecraft, including Crew-10, which the agency says is scheduled to launch no earlier than February 2025. A Crew 11 mission is not expected until July 2025 at the earliest, the agency said.

Further reading

NASA and SpaceX launch to the International Space Station (Forbes)

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