Four astronauts are safely back on Earth after spending nearly eight months in space aboard the International Space Station. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 splashed down Thursday morning in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom.
The crew included NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. NASA said they landed at 8:34 a.m. PDT on Oct. 8 after a 237-day mission that carried them more than 100 million miles around Earth.
Who Came Home
Crew-12 was made up of Meir, the mission commander; Hathaway, the pilot; Adenot of the European Space Agency; and Fedyaev of Roscosmos. Their SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched in February and carried them to the International Space Station, where they spent about 235 days living and working in orbit.
NASA’s official mission release says the four completed more than 3,792 orbits around Earth. Meir and Fedyaev were both on their second spaceflight, while Hathaway and Adenot completed their first.
The Splashdown
Dragon Freedom undocked from the space station on Wednesday and spent a little more than a day heading home. After its deorbit burn, the capsule entered Earth’s atmosphere and descended under parachutes before splashing down in the Pacific near Los Angeles.
SpaceX recovery teams secured the capsule and lifted it aboard the recovery ship before helping the crew out for medical checks. The safe return completed another round-trip flight for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which uses private spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from low Earth orbit.
They Did a Lot More Than Wait to Come Home
The mission included hundreds of hours of science. NASA says the crew worked on stem-cell production, on-demand IV fluid generation for future deep-space missions, nutrition research, blood-flow studies, and research into how pneumonia-causing bacteria can contribute to long-term heart damage.
Meir completed four spacewalks during the mission, bringing her career total to seven. Adenot completed three and became the first French woman to perform a spacewalk.
Crew-13 Is Already on the Station
The handoff was already underway before Crew-12 left. Crew-13 reached the ISS in a record 7 hours and 55 minutes earlier this month and is now continuing the station’s research mission.
NASA has also continued expanding its partnership with SpaceX for crew transportation. BitcoinVersus.Tech previously covered NASA adding three more SpaceX crew flights under its Commercial Crew Program.
A Long Mission Ends Safely
The return closes a long but productive mission for the four-person crew. The Associated Press reported that the astronauts were especially eager to get back to their families and simple things they had gone months without—fresh air, showers, and being outside.
For Crew-12, the hardest part is now over: the capsule is back, the crew is safe, and eight months of work in orbit is officially in the books.
Editor’s Note
The 1200×630 featured image is NASA/Keegan Barber’s actual Oct. 8, 2026 photograph of Crew Dragon Freedom splashing down in the Pacific with Crew-12 aboard. The separate body image shows the crew aboard the International Space Station in their Dragon pressure suits shortly before the return home. Both images are directly tied to the mission. The two YouTube videos are distinct NASA mission videos, and the Reddit embed is directly about Crew-12’s splashdown recovery.
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