Astronauts from NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 safely splash down in the Atlantic

The fourth commercial crew mission to the International Space Station by NASA was completed on Friday when the Crew-4 astronauts splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. Four people spent 170 days in space. The astronauts returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted splashdown. The astronauts were retrieved from the recovery vessels. All astronauts will go to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston after returning to shore. Cristoforetti will board a plane to Europe. 

The international crew has spent nearly six months on the International Space Station conducting science for the benefit of all. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that their work aboard the laboratory will help prepare future explorers for space missions. The opportunity of a lifetime, but it also requires explorers to make sacrifice, especially time away from loved ones. The Crew-4 mission launched at 3:52 am on April 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Dragon docked to the space-facing port less than 16 hours later. The astronauts left the same port at 12:05 pm Friday to begin their journey home. They traveled over 72 million miles and spent 170 days on the space station.

With the completion of their flight today, Lindgren and Cristoforetti have both racked up over 300 days in space, making them second and third on the all-time list for most days in space by a woman. The first spaceflight for both of them was the Crew-4 mission. A host of science and maintenance activities and technology demonstrations were contributed to by the Crew-4 astronauts. Cristoforetti and Artemyev performed station maintenance and upgrades. Crew-4 continued work on investigations documenting how improvements to the space diet affect immune function and the gut microbiome, determining the effect of fuel temperature on the flammability of a material, and studying possible adverse effects on astronauts hearing from equipment noise and microgravity. 

The astronauts investigated changes in the human immune system similar to aging, tested a novel water-reclamation Membrane, and examined a concrete alternative made with a material found in lunar and Martian dust. After the flight, the Freedom by Crew-4 will return to Florida for inspection and processing, where teams will examine the data and performance throughout the flight. The Crew-4 flight is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program and its return to Earth follows on the heels of NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 launch, which docked to the station Oct Another science expedition is about to start.

The goal of NASA's Commercial Crew Program is safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station. This has provided additional research time and increased the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity's microgravity testbed for exploration, including helping NASA prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.