A crew of French, US and Russian astronauts returned to Earth on Thursday after roughly eight months aboard the International Space Station, France 24 reports. Their SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, according to Bloomberg.
NASA streamed the Crew-12 return and splashdown live. The agency had also flagged the landing day as it approached, and Space carried running coverage of the Dragon crew's final hours in orbit.
The Guardian described a separate four-person return from the station following a medical relief mission, indicating more than one crew came home around this period. The material available does not specify the astronauts' names, the exact splashdown time or the reason the flight was designated a medical relief mission.
Recovery teams typically meet the capsule after splashdown and help the crew out of the spacecraft before medical checks, though the sources summarized here do not detail the steps taken on this occasion.
The mission was part of the regular rotation of personnel on the orbital laboratory, which has been continuously occupied for decades and is run as a partnership among several space agencies. Crews launched under the commercial crew program fly to and from the station in Dragon vehicles, with splashdowns in the Pacific or off the Florida coast.
What to watch next: NASA and SpaceX are expected to release further details on the crew's condition and the spacecraft's recovery, while the station's remaining occupants continue science operations in orbit.
