Four astronauts return safely to earth after completing historic mission on International Space Station

In a triumphant return to Earth, four astronauts from NASA, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Russia have successfully completed their first long-duration spaceflight aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The spacefarers, collectively known as SpaceX's Crew-6, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, at 12:17 a.m. EDT (0417 GMT) on Monday, September 4th, aboard the Dragon spacecraft "Endeavour."

The Crew-6 team included Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg of NASA, Sultan AlNeyadi of the UAE, and Andrey Fedyaev of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos. Of the quartet, only Bowen had previous spaceflight experience.

The crew had embarked on their mission on March 2nd and spent an impressive 186 days in space, serving as Expedition 68 and Expedition 69 flight engineers aboard the ISS. Weather conditions had initially postponed their scheduled return on Sunday, extending their stay by a day.

Bowen, during a farewell ceremony on the ISS on August 31st, reflected on the mission: "When we showed up here six months ago, it was a new experience for all of us. 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."

Warren, also at the ceremony, shared his thoughts: "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. 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."

During their mission, the Crew-6 astronauts achieved various milestones, including conducting three spacewalks, berthing a Cygnus cargo vehicle, and performing maintenance tasks to improve the space station.

The Crew-6 members departed from the ISS on Sunday, with the Dragon Endeavour autonomously undocking from the space-facing port of the Harmony node at 7:05 a.m. EDT (1105 GMT).

For Sultan AlNeyadi, the mission was historic as it marked the first long-duration expedition by an Arab and an Emirati astronaut. He became only the second UAE astronaut to fly to space, following Hazza AlMansoori's brief mission to the ISS in 2019. The first Arab in space, Prince Sultan Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, had launched on a NASA space shuttle in 1985.

AlNeyadi expressed his enthusiasm and the impact of his mission, saying, "We had a good outreach with many people around the world, so it was really amazing —especially for my region. 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."

AlNeyadi was responsible for selecting the Crew-6 zero-g indicator, a plush doll of the UAE astronaut program's mascot "Suhail," which also safely returned to Earth with the Dragon spacecraft.

Andrey Fedyaev made history as the second Russian cosmonaut and the first Russian man to intentionally return from space to a water landing, thanks to a seat swap agreement between NASA and Roscosmos.

The successful recovery of the Dragon spacecraft and its crew was supported by SpaceX recovery boats, including the "Megan," named after NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, one of the first women to fly on a SpaceX Dragon.

With Crew-6 back on Earth, Expedition 69 continues aboard the ISS, comprising 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.