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SpaceX's Crew-10 astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday (Aug. 9) after living on the International Space Station for nearly five months.
The mission's Crew Dragon capsule, named Endurance, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast at 11:33 a.m. EDT (1533 GMT; 8:33 a.m. local California time).
"From the entire Crew-10, thank you," radioed Anne McClain, NASA astronaut and Dragon commander, soon after splashdown. "It was truly the ride of a lifetime."
As its name suggests, Crew-10 was the 10th operational astronaut mission that SpaceX has flown to and from the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA, via the agency's Commercial Crew Program (CCP).
The crewmembers were McClain and Nichole Ayers of NASA, Takuya Onishi of JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and Kirill Peskov of Roscosmos, Russia's space agency. McClain commanded Crew-10, Ayers was the pilot and Onishi and Peskov were mission specialists.
The flight launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 14 and arrived at the orbiting lab two days later. Crew-10's four astronauts soon set to conducting science work, which consumed much of their time over the ensuing months.
"During their stay in space, the crew studied space-caused mental and physical changes in astronauts, blood flow from the brain to the heart, future lunar navigation techniques and more," NASA officials wrote in a blog post on Monday (Aug. 4).
The wheels for Crew-10's departure began turning last Saturday (Aug. 2), when SpaceX's four-person Crew-11 mission arrived at the ISS. The Crew-10 astronauts spent a few days advising their replacements, then set their minds to gearing up for the return to Earth — and reflecting on their orbital experience.
"We got to accomplish a lot of really amazing operational things," Ayers said during a farewell ceremony on Tuesday (Aug. 5).
"We got to see some amazing views, and we have had some really big belly laughs and a wonderful time together," she added. "I think that [we're] leaving with a heart full of gratitude, and [we're] excited to see where the International Space Station goes after we get home."
Related Stories:
— Meet the astronauts of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission
— International Space Station: Everything you need to know about the orbital laboratory
— SpaceX's Crew-11 astronauts arrive at the International Space Station (video)
The hatches between Endurance and the ISS closed on Friday (Aug. 8) at 4:20 p.m. EDT (2020 GMT), and the capsule undocked about two hours later, at 6:15 p.m. EDT (2205 GMT). Endurance then began maneuvering its way back to Earth, setting up its splashdown today.
It was the first Pacific Ocean return for a SpaceX CCP mission; all previous such flights have come down off the Florida coast. SpaceX recently shifted to West Coast reentries for all of its Dragon missions, both crewed and uncrewed, to minimize the chance that falling space debris could damage property or injure people.
Crew-10 wasn't the first SpaceX astronaut mission of any type to land in the Pacific, however; the private Fram2 and Axiom 4 flights did so earlier this year.
Crew-10 was the first spaceflight for Ayers and Peskov and the second for McClain and Onishi. Onishi served as commander of the ISS' current Expedition 73 from April until this past Tuesday, when he handed the reins over to cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov.
Editor's note: This story was updated at noon ET on Aug. 9 with news of successful splashdown.
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