After completing their very first long duration space flight on the International Space Station, three astronauts and one Russian Cosmonaut from Crew-6 arrived back on earth on Sept. 4 in the early hours of the morning at 12:17 a.m.
Warren Hoburg and Stephen Bowen from NASA, Sultan AlNeyadi of the United Arab of Emirates, and Andrey Fedyaev of Russia´s federal space corporation splashed down aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. Out of the four Crew-6 members aboard the Dragon capsule, only Bowen had flown in space before making this already impressive accomplishment even more extraordinary.
Bowen publicly stated during a brief farewell ceremony aboard the station on Aug. 31 that he had, ¨been to space, but I´ve never been on a long duration mission. This has been an absolutely incredible experience, and it’s been a great opportunity to watch my amazing crewmates as they’ve come along.¨
For AlNeyadi this flight was not only his first expedition into space, but also the first long duration expedition into space by an Emerati and by an Arab. AlNeyadi is overall grateful for his experience and the position it gave him to make members of his religion proud. ¨We had a good outreach with many people around the world, so it was really amazing, especially for my religion,” AlNeyadi stated to the public. AlNeyadi was also responsible for selecting the Crew-6 zero-g indicator, a small plush doll of the United Arab of Emirates astronaut program´s mascot ¨Suhail,̈ who acted as a signal to all Crew-6 members representing they were in free fall around earth. Suhail splashed down on the Dragon Capsule along with the rest of Crew-6.
Russian Cosmonaut, Fedyaev is only the second Cosmonaut and first Russian man in history to return from a space mission to a water landing purposefully. Fedyaev gained his spot on the Crew-6 SpaceX mission through a seat swap agreement between Roscosmos and NASA.
After launching the station in March, Crew-6 remained in space for six months, splashing down a day later than anticipated due to severe weather conditions. In their last week aboard the space station, members of Crew-6 worked diligently in order to complete preparations to hand over the operation to Crew-7, who arrived at the Space station on Aug. 27.
During their time in space, members of Crew-6 were assigned to oversee more than a tremendous 200 science and technology projects. ¨We´ve got alot done during our mission” Hoburg informed, even stating that as a crew they conducted ¨three space walks.¨
With the Crew-6 mission considered history, NASA is only planning for bigger and better things to come for not only SpaceX, but also for the advancements of space exploration.
