The NASA-SpaceX Crew-6 mission successfully completed its journey back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, touching down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. The mission, which involved NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, marked a 186-day stay aboard the ISS. Crew-6 was NASA's sixth ISS crew rotation as part of the Commercial Crew Program.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson commented on the mission's achievements, stating, "After spending six months aboard the International Space Station, logging nearly 79 million miles during their mission, and completing hundreds of scientific experiments for the benefit of all humanity, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 has returned home to planet Earth. This international crew represented three nations, but together they demonstrated humanity’s shared ambition to reach new cosmic shores."
Crew-6 launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on March 2, marking the fourth flight for the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Endeavour. SpaceX's involvement in the Commercial Crew Program began with its historic first crewed mission in November 2020, recognized as the inaugural operational crewed launch by a private company. The program's next mission, Crew-7, successfully docked with the ISS on August 27, continuing the collaborative efforts in space exploration.
