SpaceX brings four astronauts home with midnight splashdown

By Marcia Dunn
Published 6th May 2022, 08:16 BST
SpaceX has brought four astronauts home with a midnight splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, capping the busiest month yet for Elon Musk’s space taxi service.

The three US astronauts and one German transported back to Earth in the capsule were bobbing off the Florida coast, near Tampa, less than 24 hours after leaving the International Space Station.

US space agency Nasa expects to have them back in Houston later on Friday.

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Nasa’s Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and the European Space Agency’s Matthias Maurer, embraced the seven astronauts remaining at the station, before parting ways.

European Space Agency's astronaut Matthais Maurer gives a thumbs up after being helped out of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX Shannon recovery ship after he and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Tom Marshburn, landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, Friday, May 6, 2022. (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via AP)European Space Agency's astronaut Matthais Maurer gives a thumbs up after being helped out of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft onboard the SpaceX Shannon recovery ship after he and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Tom Marshburn, landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa, Florida, Friday, May 6, 2022. (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via AP)