Crew-1 Astronauts Return to Earth After 168-Day Mission

By Bob Granath

After 168 days in space, NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, returned to Earth landing in pre-dawn darkness at 2:56 a.m. EDT on May 2, 2021 completing the Crew-1 mission. Liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took place Nov. 15, 2021, from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.

The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station on May 1, 2021 to begin the reentry process. Landing took place in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission was the first crew rotation flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket with astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Click here to read more about the Crew-1 mission.

“Welcome home Victor, Michael, Shannon, and Soichi, and congratulations to the teams at NASA and SpaceX who worked so hard to ensure their safe and successful splashdown,” said Bill Nelson, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as NASA Administrator on April 29, 2021. “We’ve accomplished another incredible spaceflight for America and our commercial and international partners. Safe, reliable transportation to the International Space Station is exactly the vision that NASA had when the agency embarked on the commercial crew program.”

After splashdown and recovery by the SpaceX recovery ship Go Navigator, the four astronauts took a short helicopter trip to shore. This will be followed by a flight aboard a NASA jet to Ellington Field near the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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