Summer Myatt
The sixth rotation mission of SpaceX and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has landed safely off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida after 186 days in orbit.
NASA said Monday the four-member team, who flew on the SpaceX Falcon 9 Dragon spacecraft, consisted of astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg of NASA, Sultan Alneyadi representing the United Arab Emirates, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Crew-6 began their mission on March 2, taking off at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At the International Space Station, the team participated in spacewalks, installed new roll-out solar arrays and supported hundreds of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations.
They also helped launch the first satellite from Saskatchewan, Canada, which is designed to test a melanin-based radiation detection and protection technology.
“The contributions of Crew-6 will help prepare NASA to return to the Moon under Artemis, continue onward to Mars, and improve life here on Earth,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson remarked.
Members of the seventh crew rotation mission arrived at the orbiting laboratory Aug. 27 after a nearly 30-hour journey.