American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and their Japanese ally Soichi Noguchi were aboard. The landing was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but due to unfavorable weather the forecast was postponed until Saturday and then the deadline was set for Saturday night.
According to the AP, the US Space Agency concluded a mission called Crew-1, which was the first marine landing in the dark since the Apollo 8 mission in late 1968. The crew dragon capsules parachuted to the surface as planned at 2:57 local time. The return flight from the ISS took six and a half hours, after which the capsule was quickly lifted from the sea aboard the ship.
According to the AP, the length of the entire mission was also exceptional. It lasted 167 days, a record for crew starting in the United States. Previously, it was the longest 84-day mission of the 1974 Skylab space station.
Seven people remained on the ISS after Hopkins and others left, including four who arrived there a week before in another capsule supplied by SpaceX. After returning from orbit, technicians at Cape Dragon Resilience will begin preparing crew dragon resiliency for the next manned flight as part of Inspired 4 for September 4. On this occasion, a civilian team is to land SpaceX for the first time.
