After a nearly six-month science mission aboard the International Space Station, the Crew-5 astronauts returned to Earth splashing down 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.
In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union stunned the world once again with a space spectacular in which two cosmonauts quadrupled the duration of a mission a year earlier while simultaneously orbiting two crewed spacecraft. The achievement appeared to extend the lead of America’s Cold War rival in the “Space Race.”
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 3:52 a.m. EDT on the morning of April 27, 2022, boosting the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. NASA’s Crew-4 astronauts plan to spend six months conducting research to improve life on Earth. Their work also will aid agency preparations for exploration beyond Earth.