SpaceX brings Crew-12 astronauts home after 237 days on ISS
Dragon splashed down off California, closing out Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev's 237-day ISS mission.
updates
- 2026-10-10ESA says Adenot's 237-day mission is the longest single ESA spaceflight on record, surpassing Luca Parmitano's previous mark by more than 35 days.
what happened
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Los Angeles, California at 11:34 a.m. EDT, completing 237 days at the International Space Station for Crew-12, per NASA. The crew comprised NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who undocked from the station a day earlier. The crew conducted four spacewalks during the mission, and Meir's cumulative spaceflight time now places her among NASA's ten most experienced astronauts, per NASA. ESA says Adenot's 237-day, 5-hour, 18-minute mission is the longest single ESA spaceflight on record, surpassing Luca Parmitano's previous mark by more than 35 days, and the longest SpaceX Dragon mission to date.
why it matters
The return is a routine, on-schedule Commercial Crew rotation, the kind of cadence NASA is relying on through 2030 while it works out Starliner's delayed return to flight and winds down Dragon service afterward. Each clean rotation keeps that transition plan on track for the operators and partner agencies depending on it.