ISS crew splashes down after 8-month mission

A four-person astronaut crew splashed down off the coast of California on Thursday after an eight-month mission aboard the International Space Station.

After a return journey of more than 27 hours, the Dragon capsule carrying Crew-12 landed safely in the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA's live broadcast.

Mission commander Jessica Meir, an American astronaut, said the crew was excited to be back on Earth after what she called an incredible mission on the space station.

The spacecraft was hoisted onto a specialized ship, and Meir, American Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev were helped out one by one. They were due to undergo initial medical checks on the ship before being transported by helicopter to land and then flying to Houston, Texas.

During the mission, Adenot became the first French female astronaut to venture outside the space station for a spacewalk. She carried out three spacewalks on August 18 and 25, and September 1.

Four new crew members for the ISS docked at the orbiting laboratory last week and are expected to stay for about six months. The ISS has been continuously inhabited for the last quarter-century and is scheduled to be pushed out of orbit before crashing into one of Earth's oceans sometime around 2030.

The United States and other ISS partners have continued working with Russia on the space station despite many international cooperation agreements falling apart after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.