Four astronauts have returned to Earth after heading to the International Space Station five months ago to replace the stranded pilots of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
Their SpaceX capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California a day after launching from the orbital station.
“Welcome home,” SpaceX Mission Control radioed.
Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers from NASA, Takuya Onishi from Japan and Kirill Peskov from Russia returned to Earth.
They launched in March to replace two NASA astronauts who were assigned to the failed Starliner demonstration.
Due to problems with the Starliner, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams spent more than nine months on the space station instead of the planned week.
NASA ordered Boeing's new capsule to return empty and handed the pair over to SpaceX.
They left the station shortly after Ms. McClain and her team arrived to take their places.
Mr. Wilmore has since retired from NASA.
Before leaving the space station on Friday, Ms McClain noted that “these are turbulent times” on Earth and people are experiencing difficulties.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
