A few hours ago, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft concluded its Crew-4, or SpaceX Crew-4, mission on behalf of NASA by splashing down without problems. On board were astronauts Jessica Watkins, Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Samantha Cristoforetti, who had reached the International Space Station on April 27 and were part of Expedition 67 and 68. The four of them completed SpaceX’s fourth regular crewed mission in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. The Crew Dragon departed the Station about six hours earlier.
Shortly after splashing down, the SpaceX ship called “Megan” went to retrieve the Freedom and its crew to transport them to the coast. The astronauts also received their first medical check-up aboard the ship.
On Wednesday 12 October, Samantha Cristoforetti officially handed over command of the International Space Station to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev. However, there’s a continuation of Expedition 68. After the Crew Dragon spacecraft entered service, crew turnover occurs more often and the consequence is that there are commander changes even within the same Expedition, which is divided into different parts. For this reason, Cristoforetti was the Station commander for only about two weeks.
During this first short part of Expedition 68, another Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Endurance, reached the International Space Station on October 6. On board were four new crew members of the Crew-5 mission who briefly crossed paths with Crew-4. Arrivals and departures are influenced by various factors, so it may happen that the Station crew is more numerous than normal for a few days. In this case, bad weather off the coast of Florida delayed the return to Earth of the Crew-4 astronauts.
The Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft has completed its first space mission and will be checked up and refurbished like the others after each return to Earth. If the results of the checks are positive, it will be reused in one of the next missions. So far, the various Crew Dragons are proving to be reliable in the various missions that are part of the contract with NASA, which ensures the USA a vehicle independent from other nations, and in the private missions.
