Crew-5 Astronauts Splash Down Concluding Six-Month Mission
By Bob Granath
After a nearly six-month science mission aboard the International Space Station, the Crew-5 astronauts returned to Earth splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida at 9:02 p.m. EST on March 11, 2023. The Crew Dragon spacecraft autonomously undocked and departed the orbiting laboratory returning the four crew members and time-sensitive research samples.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Russia spent 157 days in space as part of Expedition 68 performing ongoing space station research designed to benefit humans living on and off the Earth.
After splashdown, crews aboard the SpaceX recovery ship, Shannon, secured the spacecraft, lifted it aboard and helped the astronauts out within an hour of landing. The four crew members will take 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.
Their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off atop one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets at on Oct. 5, 2022 from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. During their expedition, Mann Cassada, Wakata and Kikina performed studies to prepare for human exploration well beyond low-Earth orbit including trips to the Moon and, eventually, Mars.
Their research results also should provide benefits for everyday life. Heart stem cells could provide a sustainable source of cells to treat heart disease and to act as a cell source for safely testing pharmaceuticals. Their studies also focused on how spaceflight affects heart muscle cells derived from stem cells establishing a functional heart tissue model that mimics heart disease and can be used to test new drugs.
As the Crew-5 astronauts prepared for the return to Earth, the four new Expedition 69 crew members were getting used to life in space. Crew-6 includes NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, along with Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev of Russia. Launched from Kennedy on March 2, 2023 they arrived at the orbiting outpost the next day beginning their mission of research in the microgravity environment of Earth orbit.
During their stay, the Crew-6 astronauts plan to conduct more than 200 science research in preparation for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. Experiments during Expedition 69 will include studies of how various materials burn in microgravity, tissue chip research on heart, brain and cartilage functions and a study that will collect microbial samples from the outside of the space station.
SpaceX Crew Dragon flights transporting astronauts to the International Space Station soon will include Boeing CST-100 Starliner missions continuing the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, a collaboration with industry to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from low-Earth orbit.
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