The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft is lifted onto the GO Navigator recovery ship after it landed with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Aki Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. Kimbrough, McArthur, Hoshide, and Pesquet traveled 84,653,119 statute miles during their mission, stayed 198 days aboard the space station, and completed 3,194 orbits around Earth.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-2 mission is the second operational mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which has worked with the U.S. aerospace industry to launch astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil to the space station.

The splashdown of Crew-2 comes just before the launch of NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 mission, currently scheduled for no earlier than Wednesday, Nov. 10, on another long duration mission of approximately six months.

Related Links
NASA Commercial Crew Program
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

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ISS astronauts return to Earth in SpaceX craft after 6-month mission
Washington (AFP) Nov 9, 2021
Four astronauts returned to Earth Monday in a SpaceX craft after spending six months on the International Space Station, a NASA live broadcast showed, marking the end of a busy mission. The international crew conducted thousands of experiments in orbit and helped upgrade the solar panels on the ISS during their "Crew-2" mission. Its descent slowed by four huge parachutes, their Dragon spacecraft - dubbed "Endeavour" - splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico at 10:33 pm (0333 GMT Tuesday) before it ... read more