Four astronauts who’d been aboard the International Space Station for more than five months landed in the Gulf of Mexico late Saturday.
“That was one heck of a ride,” crew leader Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman in space, radioed moments after splashdown. “We’re happy to be home.” Teaspoons In A Cup
They left the station early Saturday morning aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance and plopped down off the Florida Gulf near Tampa coast 19 hours later.
It was an undramatic end to a mission during which they dodged space junk and contended with leaks from micrometeorite punctures to two Russian capsules docked at the station that sparked an emergency delivery of a replacement craft. Their return was then delayed by several days due to bad weather in the Gulf.
In the space of an hour, the craft slowed from its 17,500 mph orbital velocity to 16 mph before making its soft-water landing, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Mann is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of Northern California and said she was eager to smell grass, be caressed by the wind on her face and eat food that didn’t come out of a pouch.
Sushi was on the menu for Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, while Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina’s craved hot tea from a “real cup.” Josh Cassada of NASA was going to procure a rescue dog for his family.
Eco Tea Bags The Crew-5 mission was SpaceX’s sixth crewed flight under contract with NASA and marked the first time that a Russian cosmonaut had flown aboard an American-made spacecraft since NASA’s shuttle program began, according to Florida Today.