Astronauts from the SpaceX Crew-3 mission aboard the Dragon Endurance spacecraft landed safely in the Gulf of Mexico.
Space travelers on the Dragon Endurance spacecraft ended their SpaceX Crew-3 mission safely by landing in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, completing NASA’s third long-duration commercial manned mission to the International Space Station .
NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer returned to Earth by parachute landing at 11:43 pm (Peruvian time).
Teams aboard SpaceX ‘s recovery ships recovered the spacecraft and astronauts. After returning to shore, the astronauts will fly back to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Another successful NASA and SpaceX mission
“NASA’s partnership with SpaceX has again enabled us to safely get a crew to the space station and back, enabling groundbreaking science that will help our astronauts travel farther into the cosmos than ever before. This mission is just one more example that we really are in the golden age of commercial spaceflight.” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
The Crew-3 mission launched on November 10 on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Nearly 24 hours after liftoff, the Endurance docked with the space station’s port named Harmony .
Barron, Chari, Marshburn and Maurer traveled more than 120 million kilometers during their mission, spending 175 days aboard the space station and completing 2,832 orbits around the Earth. Throughout their mission, the astronauts contributed to a myriad of science, maintenance, and technology demonstration activities.