A crew of four is wrapping up a nearly five-month stay on the International Space Station, returning to Earth Wednesday in the same SpaceX capsule that launched the Crew-10 mission to the station back in March.
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russia's Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov will suit up and strap into their Dragon capsule with planned undocking Wednesday at 2:05 p.m. EST. It will take the capsule a little over six hours to depart the station, punch through the atmosphere and then splash down in the Pacific Ocean under a canopy of parachutes.
"I'm reflecting with a heart full of gratitude," said Ayers, the pilot of Crew-10 ahead of her return. "I think that it's been an amazing experience."
The mission marked the first spaceflight for Ayers and Peskov. It was the second trip to the station for McClain and Onishi.
The Crew-10 participants conducted more than 200 science experiments that helped prepare humans for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit that included material studies and experiments to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body.
"We got to accomplish a lot of really amazing operational things. We got to see some amazing views, and we have had some really big belly laughs and a wonderful time together," Ayers said.
Their replacements, Crew-11, arrived at the station Saturday. NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, along with JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, will spend roughly six months on the orbiting lab conducting science experiments and maintenance.
That mission marked the 12th time SpaceX launched NASA astronauts to the ISS. In 2020, the private company began ferrying astronauts to the station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, ending a reliance on Russia for rides to the station after the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
There has been a continual human presence on the space station since Oct. 31, 2000, but NASA and its international partners plan to retire the ISS around the end of the decade. NASA is hoping commercial companies will launch new space stations for the agency's astronauts in the coming decade.
"All of us are keenly aware that we may never get to do this again," said McClain before her departure. "We've been very pensive over the last days of understanding what we have all got to be a part of."
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