Astronauts return to Earth with a landing in the Pacific Ocean after a 5-month International Space Station mission

It was NASA’s first landing in the Pacific Ocean in 50 years, and SpaceX’s third with people on board.

The last time NASA astronauts landed in the Pacific Ocean was in 1975, during the Apollo-Soyuz mission, the first international manned space mission involving Americans and Soviets.

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A SpaceX capsule carrying four crew members parachuted into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California on Saturday. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)

The crew launched in March, replacing Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore, who had been stuck on the space station for nine months on a mission that was supposed to last a week after the Boeing Starliner they arrived in suffered propulsion problems and helium leaks.

NASA concluded that returning them to Earth in the capsule was too risky, so the Starliner returned without a crew, and Willmore and Williams returned home aboard a SpaceX capsule in March after replacements arrived.

Wilmore He announced his retirement After 25 years with NASA this week.

“We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together,” McClain said before departing the space station on Friday, noting “some turbulent times on Earth.”

Members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 astronaut Takuya Onishi (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers, and Roscosmos astronaut Kirill Peskov pose before returning to Earth for a photo inside the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft that transported them to the International Space Station. (NASA via AP)

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She said she was looking forward to “doing nothing for a few days” once she got home, and her crewmates were excited about the hot shower and burgers.

Earlier this year, SpaceX decided to move landing operations from Florida to California to reduce the risk of debris falling into populated areas.

After exiting the spacecraft, the crew underwent medical checks before being flown via helicopter to meet the NASA plane bound for Houston.

“Overall, the mission went great, and I’m happy to have the crew back,” Steve Stich, director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a news conference after the plane landed. “SpaceX did a great job getting the crew back on the West Coast.”

Crew members inside the space capsule after landing. (Keegan Barber/NASA via Getty Images)

Dina Kontela, NASA’s deputy program manager for the International Space Station, added that she was “very happy to see Crew 10 back on Earth. They looked great, and are doing a great job.”

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She noted that the crew orbited the Earth 2,368 times and traveled more than 63 million miles during 146 days on the space station.