By T.J. Muscaro
Another successful manned mission to space has come to an end through a fiery push back through the atmosphere and soft splashdown into the Pacific Ocean.
This time, it was the Crew Dragon Endurance carrying the crew of the NASA Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station: Commander Anne McClain, Pilot Nichole Ayers of NASA, and Mission Specialists Takuya Onishi of the Japanese Exploration Aerospace Agency (JAXA), and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
After spending 146 days on the orbital outpost, the last three of which were spent turning over ongoing responsibilities to the Crew-11 crew, they returned to Dragon Endurance and departed at 6:15 p.m. ET on Aug. 8.
Dragon Endurance splashed down off the coast of San Diego, California, at approximately 11:33 a.m. ET on Aug. 9, continuing SpaceX and NASA’s recent decision to move splashdown and recovery operations from Florida to ensure a safer reentry of the Crew Dragon’s service module or “trunk.”
All four crew members were carefully removed from the spaceship less than an hour later.
The first to emerge was McClain, who was seen waving and pumping her fists in the air in celebration of her successful mission. This was her second stay aboard the space station, and she has now logged more than 350 days in space. Following her was Ayers, who marked the end of her first trip.
NASA’s two astronauts performed one spacewalk together during their mission. Their job was to relocate a space station communications antenna and install a mounting bracket for an additional set of solar panel arrays that will be flown up on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and installed on a later mission.
Third to egress the capsule was Onishi, who also marked the completion of his second trip to space. He has now spent more than 260 total days in space and became the third Japanese astronaut to command the space station. Peskov was the last to emerge from Dragon Endurance. Like Ayers, this mission was his first.
Once onboard the SpaceX recovery vessel “Shannon,” the crew underwent a medical review and were then set to be flown back to land by helicopter. After that, they will be flown back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
This was the mission that allowed Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to finally be relieved after their extended stay aboard the station.
Crew-10 also served as human test subjects for NASA’s Human Research Program’s ongoing study of microgravity’s effects on the human body in preparation for long-duration missions to the moon and Mars.
“Our crew missions are the building block for long-duration, human exploration, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said on X in celebration of Crew-10’s return.
“NASA is leading the way by setting a bold vision for exploration where we have a thriving space industry supporting private space stations in low Earth orbit, as well as humans exploring the Moon and Mars. Welcome home!”
