According to NASA, the crew members made a return flight that lasted about 18 hours in the Crew 7 mission, which landed safely on Space X’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, at 9:47 a.m. local time.

The Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos (Russia) cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov also brought back “important and urgent” research, the space agency said.

Dragon was moving at approximately 580 kilometers per hour and the parachutes deployed at about 18,000 feet altitude. Then, the main parachutes were opened at about 6,000 feet as the spacecraft slowed to 191 kilometers per hour. The relief of those four astronauts arrived last week at the International Space Station aboard NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission, which will conduct more than 200 scientific experiments.

Some of the research is focused on the study of brain organoids to understand neurodegenerative disorders, changes in body fluids during spaceflight, and the effects of ultraviolet radiation and microgravity on plant growth.

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