Four individuals from Space X Group 6, who have been orbiting the Earth on the Global Space Station since spring, returned to prepare the Team Mythical serpent Try and head home for a splashdown off the coast of Florida.
A group of four mission administrator members, NASA space explorer Stephen Bowen, NASA independent space explorer and pilot Woody Hoburg, mission experts Ruler AlNeyadi of Bedouin Emirates, and Roskosmos mission expert cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev said their goodbyes to Team 7 replacements who showed up last time On Sunday at the station, which briefly expanded the ISS population to 11.
That population dropped back to seven after the lid closed and Team 6's spacecraft disconnected at 7:05 a.m. for the 17-hour journey home.
Splashdown came as scheduled at 12:17 p.m. Monday off Jacksonville's Atlantic shore.
"Welcome back home. I am very much indebted to you for flying with Space X," Jake Vendl of Space X mission control said after the landing.
"We certainly appreciate the ground preparation, the deployment, all the vehicle support keeping us side by side throughout the mission," Bowen said. "It was wonderful, extremely valuable. I look forward to working with you all again."
"You have peaceful blissful individuals here," Vendl said.
Vessels of the initial recovery group will rendezvous with the team's Winged Serpent Try, which crashed in the Atlantic Sea off the coast of Jacksonville, on Monday, September 4, 2023, to complete the Space X Crrew-6 mission. (NASA)
Vessels of the initial recovery group rendezvous with the Winged Serpent Attempt team, which splashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville on Monday, September 4, 2023, to complete the Space X Crrew-6 mission. (NASA)
The groups advanced towards the container, so it could very well be lifted aboard a Space X recovery craft and allow the four teams to exit the vehicle.
Reemergence took the case from about 17,000 mph back to 350 mph, creating nearly 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, before it further eased with a parachute landing so it hit the water at just 15 mph.
Its route home was via Australia across the Pacific to then fly a southwest to upper east track over Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico and then Focal and northern Florida before spilling across the night sky into the Atlantic.
NASA space explorers
In this photo provided by NASA are, from left to right, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, NASA space explorer Warren "Woody" Hoburg, NASA space explorer Stephen Bowen, second from right, and United Bedouin Emirates space explorer Ruler al-Neyadi. A SpaceX container installed the SpaceX MEGAN recovery transporter soon after it arrived in the Atlantic Sea off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. The astronauts are back on Earth after a six-month stay at the Global Space Station. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)
All but Bowen, who flew three missions on three space shuttles, made their most memorable space trip, and AlNeyadi became the fourth space explorer from a Middle Eastern country to go into space.
"It was an excursion that can only be described as epic," AlNeyadi said during a call last week with Houston. "All aspects of it were overwhelming. Our spacewalks, our investigations, our day-to-day practice. Working with surrogates from all over the world."
He said he was asked if he would fly with a similar trio on a future trip to space.
"Overall, I say 100 percent, so I would pick all of you to fly one more time in the future," he said.
Each group of four let the media know that they generally expect them to return.
"I'm expecting decent sea air and calm calm oceans. That will be really good to come back to," Bowen said
"I'm expecting a real shower," Hoburg said
"Loved ones are the most important, plus I would have a really hot cup of espresso," AlNeyadi said.
This marks the end of the fourth excursion for Team Winged Serpent Try, which was the container that carried the main humans to the ISS on the Demo-2 mission in May 2020. It has since completed the Group 2 mission in 2021, the Adage 1 mission in 2022, and this flight, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center back on Walk 2.
Space X
Space X has four dynamic Group Mythical containers with a snake, and the fifth wanted to be online in 2024. They carried 42 people into space on 11 flights. The Mythical serpent Perseverance group remains docked on the ISS for Team 7, who won't be feeling much better for the next half year. The containers are currently rated for five flights each, with Perseverance currently on its third mission, while Group Mythical Beasts Versatility and Opportunity have both completed two missions.
Space X and Boeing were initially awarded agreements under the NASA Business Group Program with the option of both having an exciting space facility ready to each share taxi management duties to the station, but it appears that Boeing's CST-100 Starliner currently time cannot achieve its own. the most memorable training run at the station with the team. That flight won't happen until essentially 2024, so for now SpaceX continues rotational duties with Group 8 expected as early as February 2024.
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