NASA’s Crew-8 returns to Earth, successfully splashing down into Gulf

Oct. 25 (UPI) — The four-member SpaceX Crew-8 aboard Crew Dragon Endeavour returned to Earth early Friday, completing their nearly eight-month mission in space.

Their Endeavour spacecraft splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida near Pensacola at 3:39 a.m. EDT, after undocking from the International Space Station some 34 hours earlier.

Cheers from the control room erupted on confirmation of the spacecraft’s safe return.

“Splashdown. Welcome home, #Crew8,” NASA said on X. “After a science mission of over seven months living and working on @Space_Station, the crew of four are back on Earth.”

Endeavour, with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Grebenkin onboard, undocked from the ISS at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday.

Its deorbit sequence then began at around 2:30 a.m. Friday.

As it approached Earth, four parachutes autonomously deployed from the spacecraft, slowing its descent. It then splashed into the calm Gulf of Mexico, where fast boats raced out to meet Crew-8.

Dominick was the first to be aided in his exit from the crew, followed by Barratt, then Epps and finally Grebenkin.

At 235 days in space, 232 on station, making it the longest duration mission Crew Dragon has ever performed and the longest U.S. spacecraft flight ever.

The crew were then to be flown by helicopter to Florida where they were to then board a NASA plane for Houston, Texas, to be reunited with their friends and family and complete their so-called post-flight period.

The quartet launched for the ISS on March 4 and were scheduled to stay on the orbiting space laboratory for six months to perform various experiments. However, their return to Earth was repeatedly delayed due to bad weather conditions caused by Hurricane Milton and scheduling conflicts related to Boeing’s Starliner.

The Starliner launched early June for the ISS, but concerns over its propulsion system prompted the spacecraft to return to Earth uncrewed in September.

The Crew Dragon Endeavour had been reconfigured to provide seating for Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams if they needed to evacuate the ISS, but it has since been determined that they will stay on the space center until February.