SpaceX brings 4 astronauts home with midnight splashdown

In this photo made available by NASA, commercial crew astronauts pose for a picture in their space suits during a fit check on the International Space Station.

AP

The busiest month yet for Musk's taxi service came to a close on Friday with the return of four astronauts from the International Space Station.

Less than 24 hours after leaving the International Space Station, the three U.S. astronauts and one German in the capsule were bobbing off the Florida coast. They were expected to come back to Houston later in the morning.

The seven astronauts remaining at the station were embraced by the NASA and European Space Agency astronauts.

It is the end of a six-month mission, but I think the space dream lives on.

After completing a charter trip to the station for a trio of businessmen, SpaceX brought up their U.S. and Italian replacements last week.

In just a month, there are two crew launches and two splashdowns. Since it started ferrying astronauts for NASA, Musk's company has launched 26 people into space. There were eight space tourists.

The three visitors and their ex-astronaut escort who dropped by in April highlighted the mission of the newly returned astronauts.

They had to contend with a spike in space junk after Russia blew up a satellite. More than 1,500 pieces of debris spread across Earth.

The war in Ukraine has caused tension between the U.S. and Russia, but the astronauts have stood by their crew mates. NASA officials said that flight controllers in Houston and Moscow continued to cooperate.

As he relinquished command of the space station earlier this week, Marshburn called it a place of peace and said international cooperation would likely be its lasting legacy. Russian Oleg Artemyev, the new commander, emphasized the peace between his countries and his crewmates as brothers and sisters.

There are five people up there, three Russians, three Americans and one Italian.

It was the first time the three returning with him had done it before. The astronauts are part of NASA's Artemis moon-landing program. Two other people are at the space station.