Four astronauts from the second SpaceX mission to space returned to Earth late Monday with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, including a UC San Diego alumna whose journey in space was full of firsts.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, a UC San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography alumna and the pilot of the SpaceX Dragon, spent the last 200 days aboard the International Space Station with crewmates NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and France's Thomas Pesquet.
On Monday, after a delay due to high wind, their capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. Recovery boats quickly moved in with spotlights.
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McArthur has an aerospace engineering degree from UCLA and a doctorate in oceanography from UC San Diego. At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, McArthur used an algorithm to develop geoacoustic models that could describe shallow water waveguides. In space, her time was spent conducting conduct research experiments in medical technology and human health.
McArthur's time in space was memorable for the good and the not-so-good.
Among the upbeat milestones: four spacewalks to enhance the station's solar power, a movie-making visit by a Russian film crew, a birthday cake delivery and the first-ever space harvest of chile peppers, which were quickly turned into tacos (some of them, at least).
Before leaving the neighborhood, the four took a spin around the space station, taking pictures. This was a first for SpaceX; NASA's shuttles used to do it all the time before their retirement a decade ago. The last Russian capsule fly-around was three years ago.
McArthur's most recently Tweeted photos shared some of the fun moments the crew had -- joking around with their stuffed penguin friend, Guin-Guin, and some spectacular views of Arches National Park and the aurora borealis that "felt like a gift."
There were challenging moments for the crew as well. The most recent on the ride back to Earth. The toilet in their capsule was broken, and so the astronauts needed to rely on diapers for the eight-hour trip home. They shrugged it off late last week as just one more challenge in their mission.
The first issue arose shortly after their April liftoff; Mission Control warned a piece of space junk was threatening to collide with their capsule. It turned out to be a false alarm. Then in July, thrusters on a newly arrived Russian lab inadvertently fired and sent the station into a spin. The four astronauts took shelter in their docked SpaceX capsule, ready to make a hasty departure if necessary.
Their homecoming — coming just eight hours after leaving the International Space Station — paved the way for SpaceX's launch of their four replacements as early as Wednesday night.
The newcomers were scheduled to launch first, but NASA switched the order because of bad weather and an astronaut's undisclosed medical condition. The welcoming duties will now fall to the lone American and two Russians left behind at the space station.
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Before Monday afternoon’s undocking, German astronaut Matthias Maurer, who’s waiting to launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, tweeted it was a shame the two crews wouldn’t overlap at the space station but “we trust you’ll leave everything nice and tidy.” His will be SpaceX's fourth crew flight for NASA in just 1 1/2 years.
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