This past Saturday, SpaceX’s Crew-5 returned to Earth and touched down in Tampa, Florida. This was their fifth mission with NASA to the International Space Station and they had been up there for a total of 157 days!
Four astronauts, two from U.S. space agency – NASA (Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada), one from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and one from Roscosmos (Anna Kikina), returned to Earth in a parachuted controlled descent at 9:02 pm EST. Teams on board SpaceX ships brought the spacecraft and astronauts back ashore. After that, they will travel by plane to NASA’s Johnson Space Center based in Houston.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “Welcome home, Crew-5! You’ve been doing some awesome things when you were on the International Space Station, which will help us prepare for future missions and make our journey back to the Moon possible. So it’s not just your accomplishment – it’s something that all of humanity can celebrate!”
At noon time on October 5, 2022, the Crew-5 mission took off using a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After seventeen hours later on Saturday morning, Dragon docked with Harmony module’s front port and then undocked from the same port to start the journey back home.
Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina went on an amazing mission! They flew 66,577,531 miles in outer space and completed 2512 complete trips around the Earth during their journey. Mann, Cassada, and Kikina experienced their first ever spaceflight. Meanwhile Wakata has gone on five spaceflights for a total of 505 days in space!
The Crew-5 team completed many important tasks during their mission. Two astronauts, Cassada and Rubio, did three space walks together to install two new solar arrays called iROSAs on the International Space Station. Mann and Wakata did two spacewalks as well, taking special care to prepare the station for more solar energy.
The crew on the space station had a lot of work to do. They tested out ways to grow plants without soil and launched satellites from Uganda and Zimbabwe. They studied how liquids move in low gravity, like it would be on the Moon, so they can improve their ideas for rovers. They also tested a system that creates nutrients from yogurt, kefir, and a yeast-based drink. The astronauts tried growing dwarf tomatoes so that they could always have fresh food in space and set up a facility that may one day be able to 3D print working human organs!
The three astronauts on board the Dragon spacecraft named ‘Endurance’ were about to embark on their first journey. When it returns, Endurance will go back to Florida for further inspections and processing at SpaceX’s special depot. There, the crew will take a closer look at the space vessel, study data from its voyage and ready it for the next flight.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program has launched its fifth mission, Crew-5. Just before that, on March 3rd, NASA also sent out SpaceX Crew-6 to the same destination for its own science expedition.
NASA has created the Commercial Crew Program to fly people safely, dependably and affordably to the International Space Station. Plus, this is increasing the time we can spend researching in space and our chances to find new things while there. This will help us get ready for exploring the Moon and Mars one day too!
