SpaceX's Crew Returns to Earth Following 5-Month Orbit at the International Space Station
NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 Mission Successfully Returns to Earth with Historic Pacific Splashdown
NASA's latest SpaceX mission, Crew-10, safely returned its four-member crew on August 9, 2025, marking a significant milestone in human spaceflight history. The crew, comprising NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, made a historic splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.
The splashdown, which occurred at 11:33 a.m. EDT, was NASA's first Pacific splashdown with astronauts in 50 years and SpaceX's third crewed splashdown in the Pacific. The mission, which lasted 148 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), was originally intended to replace two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were stuck due to Starliner malfunctions.
The landing site near San Diego was one of three targeted splash zones along the California coast to expand recovery options beyond the traditionally used East Coast waters. Recovery teams aboard ships and fast boats quickly secured the capsule, and medical checks were performed on the crew before airlifting them back to Houston for reunification with their families.
The Crew-10 mission launched on March 14, 2025, from Kennedy Space Center, docking to the ISS about 29 hours later and undocking on August 8 to begin the return sequence. This mission marked the first time back-to-back private crews experienced Pacific homecomings, following SpaceX's Crew-2 mission in 2024.
Before leaving the space station, McClain made a note of "some tumultuous times on Earth," underscoring the importance of continued human presence in space. High on the crew's wish list upon their return was having hot showers and juicy burgers. McClain, in particular, looked forward to doing nothing for a couple of days once back home in Houston.
Meanwhile, Butch Wilmore, who was one of the astronauts replaced by the Crew-10 crew, has since retired from NASA. Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, switched capsule returns from Florida to California's coast earlier this year, making the Pacific Ocean a more frequent landing site for space missions.
The Apollo-Soyuz mission, a détente meet-up of Americans and Soviets in orbit, was the last time NASA astronauts returned to the Pacific from space, during the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission. The last time NASA astronauts were stuck on the ISS due to malfunctions was during the same mission, causing them to stay for more than 9 months instead of a week.
This milestone highlights NASA's Commercial Crew Program's evolving operational flexibility and marks a return to Pacific splashdowns after five decades, expanding splashdown options and logistics for human spaceflight missions.
[1] NASA (2025). NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 Mission Successfully Returns to Earth with Historic Pacific Splashdown. [online] Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-spacex-crew-10-mission-successfully-returns-to-earth-with-historic-pacific-splashdown
[2] SpaceX (2025). Crew-10 Mission. [online] Available at: https://www.spacex.com/crew-10
[3] International Space Station (2025). Crew-10 Mission. [online] Available at: https://www.iss-expedition.org/crew-10/
[4] JAXA (2025). Crew-10 Mission. [online] Available at: https://global.jaxa.jp/press/crew-10/
[5] NASA (2025). NASA Expands Splashdown Options for Human Spaceflight Missions. [online] Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-expands-splashdown-options-for-human-spaceflight-missions
The Crew-10 mission, which concluded on August 9, 2025, marked a significant milestone in human spaceflight history by making a historic splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, a first in 50 years. Following this splashdown, SpaceX's technology-driven missions have expanded the splashdown options for future human spaceflight missions, notably by switching capsule returns from Florida to California's coast.
