Three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Friday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico to close out an extended 235-day expedition to the International Space Station. After initial medical checks, all four were flown to a nearby medical facility for “additional evaluation,” NASA said.
No other details were immediately available.
After a high-speed re-entry above Central America and a steep descent to the Gulf, Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, astronaut Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin settled to a relatively gentle, on-target splashdown south of Pensacola, Florida, at 3:29 a.m. EDT.
A SpaceX team stationed nearby was on the scene within minutes to stabilize the capsule, make sure no toxic propellant fumes were present and then to haul it aboard a nearby recovery ship where NASA flight surgeons and support personnel were standing by to help the returning station fliers out of the crew cabin.
Despite two hours of exercise per day throughout their stay in orbit, returning station astronauts need about a month or more to regain their “land legs” after months in the weightless environment of space.
As usual with returning station fliers, Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin were carried out of the Crew Dragon and helped onto stretchers before being rolled inside the ship for initial medical checks and calls to family and friends. All four appeared in good spirits, smiling and waving as they were rolled inside.
Even so, NASA reported nearly four hours later, all four crew members “were taken to a local medical facility for additional evaluation … out of an abundance of caution.” The short statement added, “NASA will provide additional information as it becomes available.”
Mission duration was 235 days three hours and 35 minutes, during which the spacecraft circled the globe 3,776 times covering nearly 100 million miles since launch from the Kennedy Space Center on March 3.
The crew originally expected to return to Earth in September. But the flight slipped into early October in the wake of a decision to delay the launch of their Crew 9 replacements because of problems with Boeing’s Starliner crew ferry ship.
NASA eventually ruled out bringing Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams back to Earth aboard the Boeing spacecraft. Instead, the Starliner came down without its crew on September 7 and Crew 9 was launched with just two passengers — Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov — on Sept. 28.
That freed up two seats aboard the Crew Dragon for Wilmore and Williams to use when they come home next February with Hague and Gorbunov.
Sorting all that out pushed the Crew 8 departure into October. NASA and SpaceX then were repeatedly held up by high winds and rough seas at the approved splashdown sites, much of it related to hurricanes Helene and Milton.
But this week, conditions in the Gulf finally met NASA’s safety guidelines and the crew was cleared to undock and head for home.
While their mission was longer than any other Crew Dragon flight to date, is was not considered any more challenging that other long-duration flights by astronauts and cosmonauts lasting more than a year. It was not whether one or more of the Crew 8 astronauts required the “additional evaluation” mentioned by NASA.
In any case, with Crew 8 back on Earth, the Crew 9 crew will board their own ferry ship early Sunday, Nov. 3, undock from the Harmony module’s forward port and then redock at its space-facing port.
The next day, an ISS-bound SpaceX cargo ship carrying 3 tons of science gear, supplies and other equipment is scheduled for launch from the Kennedy Space Center. After an automated rendezvous, the ship will dock at the just vacated forward port on Nov. 5, election day in the United States.
