Science & Exploration 08/10/2026 3696 views 49 likes

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot returned to Earth with Crew-12 after her nearly eight-month εpsilon mission to the International Space Station, splashing down off the coast of California, USA, at 15:34 GMT/17:34 CEST on 8 October 2026.

Sophie, together with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, undocked on 7 October at 12:05 GMT/14:05 CEST, beginning a 27 hours and 29 minutes return journey back to Earth.

Splashdown off California

The splashdown took place near Los Angeles, off the coast of California, where joint SpaceX/NASA/ESA/ROSCOSMOS recovery crews were waiting for the Dragon Freedom spacecraft.

After re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and slowing down from around 28 000 km/h to about 500 km/h, the drogue chutes deployed at an altitude of about 5500 m, followed by the four main chutes approximately one minute later.

Crew-12 splashes down after 237 days in space

After the splashdown, fast boat teams…