NASA's SpaceX crew is back on Earth after spending 170 days in space

The NAAS's SpaceX crew came back to earth after spending 170 days on the international space station. The crew of four safely splashed off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida on Friday.

The crew of four astronauts named Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, and Jessica Watkins of NASA are said to be returning to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the astronauts and Samantha Cristoforetti, a European Space Agency astronaut, are expected to return to Europe after being recovered from vessels retrieved from the spacecraft.

The mission was launched on April 27 at 3.52 am EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket. Later, the Dragon docked to the Harmony module's space-facing port. On Friday, at 12:05 p.m., the astronauts disembarked from the same port to start their journey back to Earth.

The crew has travelled over 72,168,935 miles, spent over 170 days in space, and completed over 2,720 orbits around Earth during their mission. 
Cristoforetti has spent over 369 days in space on her two flights, which makes her the second woman who has spent the most days in space.

The crew have contributed to the maintenance of the activities and the technology. The crew also researched the effects of the space diet on immune function and how fuel temperature affects the flammablility of a material, studying whether additives increase or decrease the stability of emulsions. They also tested a novel water-reclamation membrane and looked into a concrete substitute made with a substance found in lunar and Martian dust. They also looked into how microgravity alters the immune system in ways that are akin to ageing.

The objective of NASA's Commercial Crew Program is to provide affordable, dependable, and safe access to and from the International Space Station.