Cape Canaveral, Nov. 8 (BUS): Four astronauts returned to Earth Monday, aboard a SpaceX craft to finish the space station’s 200-day mission that began last spring, according to the Associated Press.
Their capsule streaked through the late-night sky like a stunning meteor before they parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. Rescue boats moved quickly with spotlights.
“On behalf of SpaceX, welcome to Planet Earth,” SpaceX Mission Control radioed from Southern California. Within an hour, the four astronauts were outside the capsule, exchanging fist bumps with the team aboard the rescue ship.
Their return home – just eight hours after leaving the International Space Station – paved the way for SpaceX’s launch of four surrogates early Wednesday night.
The new arrivals were to be launched first, but NASA changed the arrangement due to bad weather and the astronaut’s undeclared medical condition. The duties of welcoming will now fall to the lone American and the two Russians left behind on the space station.
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