After six months aboard the International Space Station, four astronauts landed to Earth early Monday.
Their SpaceX capsule splashed down in the ocean southeast of Florida.
Stephen Bowen, Warren “Woody” Hoburg, and Andrei Fedyaev of NASA, as well as Sultan al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates, the first person from the Arab world to spend a prolonged period of time in orbit, all returned safely.
They left the space station claiming to have missed ocean air, hot showers, and coffee since their March arrival. Their return home was delayed by a day due to bad weather at the splashdown sites, but it made for a stunning mid-night show as the spacecraft sped over Cape Canaveral on its way to a splashdown near Jacksonville.
The astronauts expressed amazement at their safe return. SpaceX Mission Control radioed, “You’ve got a roomful of happy people here.”
Replacements were launched by SpaceX more than a week ago.
Later this month, a new crew will take over the station as two Russians and one American who have been in space for a year finally return home. After their Soyuz spacecraft lost all of its coolant and a replacement craft had to be launched, their time in space was doubled.
Seven astronauts live aboard the space station during periods between crew changes.