The Crew-7 mission to the ISS ended this morning with a splashdown at 5:50 AM EDT this morning in the Gulf of Mexico. The splashdown near Pensacola, Florida marked the end of a six and one half month mission aboard the International Space Station for the crew of four.

By 6:13 AM EDT, the Crew Dragon Spacecraft Endurance was hoisted safely aboard the SpaceX recovery ship Megan, with the crew exiting Endurance around 6:36 AM.

NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov launched on August 26, 2023 from the Kennedy Space Center. Their mission extended for 199 days, logging a 84,434,094 mile journey consisting of 3,184 orbits around Earth.

While in orbit, the crew conducted over 200 science experiments, one of which was a critical study on the impact of spaceflight on immune function. Additionally, the crew engaged in testing innovative membranes intended for the removal of contaminants from wastewater—a critical advancement for future deep space expeditions where water recycling is essential.

The mission set a new record for the Crew Dragon spacecraft, Endurance. This mission marked Endurance’s third flight and took its total days in space to 534, more than any other crew-rated vehicle in history. Space X’s Crew Dragon capsules are currently rated for reuse on five missions, but the success rate has been so high across SpaceX’s fleet of four Crew Dragons, the company plans to pursue flight certifications to substantially increase that rating to around fifteen.

The return of Crew-7 paves the way for future missions, including the forthcoming cargo Dragon Resupply Mission, CRS-30 next week, as well as Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule’s scheduled test mission in May. While Crew 7 was docked at the ISS, there were a total of six docking ports being used for various crew and cargo modules, creating enough congestion that the Boeing Starliner flight test was pushed from April to May.

_{Note: this article was originally published by Florida Media Now and was authored by Mark Stone.}