Four astronauts land back in Florida in SpaceX capsule after 200 days on the ISS

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Four diaper-wearing astronauts splashed back down in Florida on Monday evening, at the end of a 200-day stay at the International Space Station. 

NASA‘s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, along with the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s astronaut Akihiko Hoshide separated from the ISS at 2:05pm ET, as scheduled, and landed back at 10:33pm ET off the Florida coast.

Fast boats were deployed to retrieve the four from their capsule, bobbing in the sea. The recovery team was awaiting three nautical miles away.

At 10:38pm the green light was given for the rescue crews to approach the capsule.

‘We were on the helipad watching the crew members streak through the atmosphere, and it looked like a meteor – it was truly incredible,’ said Leah Cheshier, a NASA spokesman.

‘We couldn’t ask for better conditions and things are moving really smoothly here and happening as planned.’ 

The capsule was put on a boat, and transported back to the station. 

At 11:14pm ET, the side hatch was opened, and the crew disembarked. 

Megan McArthur, the captain, was the first to leave, at 11:26pm ET. 

She was followed by Commander Shane Kimbrough, beaming as he was carried out of the capsule and put on the stretcher to be wheeled away. He waved for the cameras and made a V for Victory sign. 

All four were out of the capsule by 11:33pm, with smiles and fist-bumps all round. 

Their return was initially set for Sunday afternoon, but high winds pushed the return for the Crew-2 team back one day.

The SpaceX capsule, named Endeavour, is without a bathroom, due to a faulty toilet design, and all four crew members are wearing diapers on the trip back to Earth. 

However, the rescheduled mission cuts the trip from the station to Earth by 12 hours – it is only eight hours long, compared to 20 hours –  due to the path from the ship to Earth, so the team will not have to sport the protective undergarments as long as previously expected.

‘Bittersweet feeling to leave … a magical place in the sky that grants superpowers like floating and seeing [Earth] at a glance,’ Pesquet tweeted Monday morning. 

‘It gives me hope that humans can achieve anything, with good intentions, when we want to.’ 

The hatches of Endeavour closed, with the astronauts inside, at 12:13pm ET on Monday and less than two hours later, the crew conducted a series of short burns to push away from the ISS.  

Endeavour was perfectly on schedule as it parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico, off the Florida coast. 

These astronauts are the third crew launched into orbit under NASA’s fledgling public-private partnership with SpaceX, the rocket company formed in 2002 by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The returning team was designated ‘Crew 2’ because it marks the second operational space station team that NASA has launched aboard a SpaceX capsule since resuming human spaceflights from American soil last year.

Previously, there was a nine-year hiatus at the end of the U.S. space shuttle program in 2011.

Before leaving the space around the ISS, the four took a spin around the space station to take pictures.  

NASA’s shuttles used to do it all the time before their retirement a decade ago to allow for a deeper look at the ISS’s aging structure and determine if maintenance is needed.

However, this was the first time SpaceX attempted a flyaround like this.

Less than 48 hours after Crew-2 leaves the ISS, the Crew-3 mission will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 10. 

Frictional heat generated as the capsule plunges through the atmosphere typically sends temperatures surrounding the outside of the vehicle soaring to 3,500 degree Fahrenheit. 

Having Crew-2 come back to Earth before Crew-3 launches is referred to as an ‘indirect’ handover, according to NASA.

‘It’s been great to be part of your team,’ NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who remained aboard the station, told the Crew-2 astronauts as they departed. ‘Get home safely.’

‘We learned a lot from you and know you’re going to treat Crew-3 really well and let us know if we can do anything for you,’ Kimbrough radioed back. ‘Take care and fly safe.’

The American space agency prefers a direct handover, where Crew-3 arrives before Crew-2 leaves, allowing for an overlap on the station.

A direct handover was planned on October 31, but poor weather and a minor medical issue with a Crew-3 astronaut caused a delay.

The toilet issue started in September when the commode aboard the Inspiration4 mission, the first all-civilian mission in space, leaked and spilled urine underneath the floor of the capsule.

Engineers, however, did not notice the trouble until the crew – Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Haley Arceneaux and Christopher Sembroski – returned from their three-day journey around the Earth.

The issue stemmed from a tube that had become unplugged, which was also found aboard the Endeavour capsule, which flew SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission to the ISS back in late April.

The crew investigated the return capsule docked to the ISS by looking under the panels with video cameras to provide the NASA and SpaceX teams with data to see if their toilet was anything like that of the Inspiration4 mission.

Pools of urine were spotted during the investigation.

Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, told reporters at an October 29 press conference after the investigation: ‘Our intent is to not use the system at all for the return leg home because of what we’ve seen with the fluids we are talking about.’

However, diapers, or undergarments are commonly used by astronauts to relieve themselves in spacesuits for launches, landings and spacewalks.

The Crew-2 return capsule is scheduled to do a fly-around maneuver after undocking.

This entails them circling the space station in the Dragon capsule while taking photos of the ISS, which has been done since the deployment of the ship. 

The string of delays also pushed the Crew-3 mission until Wednesday, which will see NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, along with the ESA’s Matthias Maurer, fly aboard the Dragon spacecraft to start a six-month stay on the ISS.