Crew splashes down after 8-month mission on International Space Station

On Thursday, a crew of four astronauts successfully landed back on Earth after completing an eight-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), according to NASA. The astronauts, including Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrei Fedyaev, touched down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California after a return journey of over 27 hours.

Meir, serving as mission commander, expressed her joy at returning to Earth, stating, "We are so excited to be back on planet Earth after an incredible mission on the International Space Station."

The Dragon capsule, carrying the Crew-12 mission, was safely retrieved and brought aboard a specialized ship. The four astronauts were then brought out one by one and underwent initial medical examinations. They will be transported by helicopter to land and subsequently flown to Houston, Texas, the home of NASA's astronaut operations center.

During their time on the ISS, French astronaut Sophie Adenot made history by becoming the first female astronaut from France to conduct a spacewalk. She performed three spacewalks on August 18, August 25, and September 1. The ISS, which has been continuously inhabited for the past quarter-century, is set to be deorbited and crash into an ocean around 2030.

Despite international tensions arising from Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, leading to the breakdown of several cooperation agreements, the United States and other ISS partners have continued working with Russia on the space station.