- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
- Pogba's drug ban cut to 18 months from four years
- Devine leads New Zealand to big win over India in Women's T20 World Cup
- Bosnia floods kill 16 people
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Prosecutors seek dismissal of rape charges against French rugby players
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- Bolivia's Morales says claims he raped a minor are a 'lie'
- MLB Reds hire two-time champion Francona as manager
- Daniel Maldini receives first Italy call-up for Nations League
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- Ancelotti points finger at Madrid's 'lack of intensity'
- Haiti reeling after 70 killed in gang attack
- Five Czech kids in hospital over TikTok 'piercing challenge'
- What happens next in Iran-Israel conflict?
- Country star Garth Brooks denies rape accusations
- Stubbs hits maiden century as South Africa make 343-4 against Ireland
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Odegaard injury has forced Arsenal to be 'different', says Arteta
- Ratcliffe refuses to guarantee Ten Hag's Man Utd future
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Mauritius to hold legislative election on November 10
- Britain qualify for America's Cup final after 60-year wait
- IMF asks Sri Lanka to protect hard-won gains
- Morata returns to Spain Nations League squad after injury
- Irish regulator to probe Ryanair use of facial recognition
- Public allowed to see video evidence in France mass rape trial
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- Under-fire Ten Hag 'together' with Man Utd hierarchy
- Guardiola talks of Man City love affair as financial hearing rumbles on
- De Bruyne out of Belgium Nations League squad
- Japanese trainer Yahagi hopes Shin Emperor achieves 50-year-old Arc dream
- UK's Starmer hails 'landmark' carbon capture funding
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Bosnia floods kill 14 people
- Tennis world number one Swiatek splits with coach Wiktorowski
Space station crew splash down in Gulf of Mexico
Four astronauts splashed down off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico on their return to Earth early Tuesday, following a more than six-month mission on the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft landed in the waters off Pensacola at 5:47 am (0947 GMT), with a NASA thermal camera showing all four of its drogue parachutes had deployed for the night-time landing after their 18-and-a-half-hour journey from the ISS.
Led by US astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, who was making her first spaceflight, NASA's Crew-7 arrived at the research platform last August aboard the same SpaceX Crew Dragon that took them back to Earth.
Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Satoshi Furukawa of Japan, and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov were also on board.
"It was great to see Crew-7 back home and well. What a way to start a morning," said NASA's Rebecca Turkington, who was on board the recovery vessel.
The capsule was retrieved from the sea less than half an hour after splashdown, with the crew waving to the recovery team as they opened the hatch.
Space remains a rare area of cooperation between the United States and Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin's ambitions to reshape the global balance of power.
US astronauts also continue to fly aboard Russian Soyuz rockets that launch from Kazakhstan.
During a farewell ceremony on Sunday, Moghbeli paid tribute to the post-Cold War international partnership that paved the way for the construction of the ISS in the 1990s.
"It's an indication of what we can do when we work together," she said.
"To think back to when this was just a dream itself, and the people that had the vision, the grit and the courage to pursue this orbiting laboratory in low Earth orbit, I'm really proud to be a part of this."
The members of Crew-7 carried out science experiments including collecting samples during a spacewalk to determine whether the station releases microorganisms through life support system vents. Another assessed how microgravity, which accelerates aging, affects liver regeneration.
Crew-7 is the seventh routine NASA mission to the orbital platform for Elon Musk's SpaceX, with the first coming in 2020. The latest, Crew-8, launched on March 4.
NASA pays SpaceX for the taxi service as part of a US program put in place to reduce dependency on Russian rockets following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
Boeing is the other contracted private partner, but its program has fallen behind. It now plans to fly its first crew in May.
The first segment of the ISS was launched in 1998, and it has been continuously inhabited by an international crew since 2001.
Its operations are set to continue until at least 2030, after which it will be decommissioned and crash into the ocean. Several private companies are working on commercial space stations to replace it, while China has already established its own orbital lab.
O.Gaspar--PC