SpaceX Dragon Endeavor splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida at 0417 UTC on Monday (Sept. 4), concluding six month mission in the International Space Station, ISS, by Crew-6 astronauts Sultan AlNeyadi of the UAE (United Arab Emirates), Andrey Fedyaev of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, and NASA's Warren "Woody" Hoburg and Stephen Bowen, the only one who had flown in space before.
Dragon Endeavor undocked from the ISS at 1105 UTC Sept. 3, after a one-day delay due to bad weather at its splashdown site. The two spacecraft separated in darkness as the station was over the night side of Earth flying 256 miles above the Pacific Ocean at the time.
Following a 17-hour trip from the space station and splashdown Monday morning, SpaceX recovery boats were staged near the landing point and were quickly on hand to help retrieve the spacecraft and its crew from the water.
"When we showed up here six months ago, it was a new experience for all of us," Bowen said during a brief farewell ceremony aboard the station on Thursday (Aug. 31). "I 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."
"It's certainly been the experience of a lifetime and a real honor to get to spend six incredibly short-feeling months living and working aboard this incredible orbiting outpost," Warren said at the same ceremony. "I think we got a lot done. We started off with SpaceX [Commercial Resupply Services or CRS] 27 right away, a cargo vehicle full of science. Later, we had the SpaceX [CRS] 28 mission, as well we welcomed a visiting Axiom crew on board."
"We did three spacewalks amongst our Crew-6," Warren added. "We berthed a Cygnus [cargo] vehicle. We did a lot of maintenance, and hopefully we're leaving the space station just a little bit better than we found it."
"We had a good outreach with many people around the world, so it was really amazing -- especially for my region," AlNeyadi said. "I come from a place where human spaceflights were stopped for more than 30 years, and I felt that I was obligated to show what's happening with the station. I think it was a small boost towards spreading the enthusiasm in our region."
With the departure of Crew-6 mission astronauts from the ISS, the space station's Expedition 69 continues with NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Konstantin Borisov.
Expedition 70 will begin when Russia's Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft departs the station in late September with Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, the latter setting a new U.S. record for time on a single space mission at 371 days.
WATCH SpaceX Dragon Endeavor splashdown off the coast of Florida