Four astronauts fly SpaceX back home, end 5-month mission

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Four space station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a quick SpaceX flight home.

Their capsule was found in the Gulf of Mexico, just off Tampa’s coast.

The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent five months at the International Space Station, Last October, arriving. The astronauts had to contend with space junk and a pair of Russian capsules that were leaking from the orbiting station. Delivery of an urgent replacement craft The station’s other crew members.

NASA’s Nicole Mann is the leader The first Native American woman to fly into spaceThe astronauts left the station on Saturday morning. As they waited for pickup, the Dragon capsule was already bobbing in deep blue waters less than 19 hours after launch.

The station was able to keep them there for an extra day because of high winds and waves at the splashdown zones earlier in the week. They arrived more than a week after their replacements.

“That was one heck of a ride,” Mann radioed just moments after splashdown. “We’re happy to be home.”

Mann, a Northerner