A little while ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft concluded its Crew-8, or SpaceX Crew-8, mission for NASA by landing without problems. On board were astronauts Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who had reached the International Space Station on March 5, 2024, and were part of Expedition 70/71/72. The four of them finished the 8th regular crewed mission of SpaceX in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida. The Crew Dragon departed the Station about 34 hours earlier.

Shortly after the splashdown, SpaceX’s “MV Megan” ship went to recover the Endeavour and its crew to transport them to the coast. The astronauts also received their first medical checkup aboard the ship.

During the few weeks that constituted the initial part of Expedition 72, there were no out-of-the-ordinary activities such as arrivals and departures of spacecraft or spacewalks. The crew of the International Space Station focused on routine activities, if the many scientific experiments conducted on the Station can be considered routine.

The Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft completed its fifth space mission, which currently represents the record for a Crew Dragon. It will be checked up like the others after each return to Earth. SpaceX continues to fly missions under its contract with NASA, which provide the USA with a means of transportation independent of other nations, and private missions.

The conclusion of the Crew-8 mission occurred about ten days later than scheduled. The original schedule called for the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft to depart on October 13, but unfavorable weather conditions in the areas of the possible splashdown forced NASA and SpaceX to wait for an improvement. Despite all the technological advances, the reentry of a spacecraft remains an operation that involves risks that become unacceptable in case of bad weather. For this reason, the Crew-8 mission had a record length.