SpaceX Crew-6 back home from space station after Florida splashdown

The four members of SpaceX Crew-6 that had been orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station since March climbed back on board the Crew Dragon Endeavour and made the trip home for a splashdown off the Florida coast.

The quartet of mission commander NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, fellow NASA astronaut and pilot Woody Hoburg, mission specialists United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi and mission specialist Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev said their goodbyes to the Crew-7 replacements that arrived last Sunday to the station that temporarily increased the ISS population to 11.

That population went back down to seven after the hatch closed and Crew-6’s spacecraft undocked at 7:05 a.m. for the 17-hour trip home.

Splashdown came as planned at 12:17 a.m. Monday off the coast of Jacksonville in the Atlantic.

“Welcome back home. Thank you for flying SpaceX,” said SpaceX mission control’s Jake Vendl after landing.

“We certainly appreciate the initial training, the launch, throughout the mission keeping us abreast of all the vehicle support all the way down,” Bowen said. “This has been incredible, greatly appreciated. I look forward to working with you all again.”

“You’ve got a roomful happy people here,” Vendl said.

Initial recovery team vessels meet up with the Crew Dragon Endeavour that splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville on Monday, Sept.4, 2023 to complete the SpaceX Crrew-6 mission. (NASA)

Initial recovery team vessels meet up with the Crew Dragon Endeavour that splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville on Monday, Sept.4, 2023 to complete the SpaceX Crrew-6 mission. (NASA)

Teams made their way to the capsule so it could be brought up on board a SpaceX recovery ship to allow the four crew exit the vehicle.

Reentry took the capsule from about 17,000 mph slowing to 350 mph generating near 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit before it slowed further with a parachute-assisted landing so it hit the water at about only 15 mph.

Its path home took it over Australia across the Pacific to then fly on a southwest to northeast path over Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico and then Central and North Florida before its Atlantic splashdown streaking across the night sky.

In this photo provided by NASA, from left to right, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, NASA astronaut Warren "Woody" Hoburg, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, second from right, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi are seen inside a SpaceX capsule onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The astronauts are back on Earth after a six-month stay at the International Space Station. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, from left to right, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, NASA astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, second from right, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi are seen inside a SpaceX capsule onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The astronauts are back on Earth after a six-month stay at the International Space Station. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

All but Bowen, who flew three missions on three space shuttles, made their first trip to space, and AlNeyadi became the fourth astronaut from an Arab nation to go to space.

“it’s been a trip of a lifetime,” AlNeyadi said during a call last week with Houston. “Every part of it was amazing. Our spacewalks, our experiments, our daily routine. The interaction with the students from all over the world.”

He said he’s been asked if he would fly with the same trio for a future trip to space.

“I always say 100% So I would definitely choose you guys to fly in the future again,” he said.

The quartet each told media what they were most looking forward to once arriving home.

“I’m looking forward to the nice ocean air and peaceful calm seas. That will be really nice to get back to,” said Bowen

“I’m looking forward to a real shower,” said Hoburg

“Family and friends are the most important, and besides that, I would love a real hot cup of coffee,” said AlNeyadi.

“I think my dream is for good sleep,” said Fedyaev.

This marks the end of the fourth trip for Crew Dragon Endeavour, which was the capsule that brought up the first humans to the ISS in May 2020 on the Demo-2 mission. It has since flown the Crew-2 mission in 2021, Axiom-1 mission in 2022 and this flight that launched from Kennedy Space Center back on March 2.

SpaceX has four active Crew Dragon capsules and a fifth planned to come online in 2024. They have flown 42 humans to space on 11 flights. Crew Dragon Endurance remains docked to the ISS for Crew-7, which won’t be relieved for another six months. For now, the capsules are rated for five flights each with Endurance now on its third mission while Crew Dragons Resilience and Freedom have both completed two missions.

SpaceX and Boeing originally won the contracts under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program with the idea that both would have a working spacecraft up and running so they would each share taxi service duties to the station, but Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has yet to make its first test flight to the station with crew. That flight won’t happen until at least March 2024, so for now SpaceX continues the rotational duties with Crew-8 planned for as early as February 2024