The fourth long-duration astronaut team launched by SpaceX successfully returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida, after nearly six months of study aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Three Americans were aboard the Freedom-branded SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. After a five-hour autonomous flight from the International Space Station (ISS), two NASA astronauts and an Italian crewmate from the European Space Agency parachuted into the ocean. Splashdown at approximately 4:55 p.m. in a clear sky. A joint NASA-SpaceX webcast carried the live event at 20:55 EDT (22:55 GMT). 

On April 27, Freedom launched on its orbital mission. The team included Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, 45, who led the expedition, fellow Americans Jessica Watkins, 34, and Bob Hines, 47, and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, 49. Watkins became the first African-American woman to serve on an extended ISS mission. The four astronauts were helped out of the heat-scorched Crew Dragon one by one and into a retrieval vessel by recovery teams in less than an hour. 

After spending 170 days in weightlessness, the four crew members were carried onto special gurneys while waving and giving the thumbs up to onlookers while still donning their helmeted white and black spacesuits.

Megan McArthur, a seasoned NASA astronaut, was one of the people who welcomed them on the deck. Each of the returning astronauts was planned to have a normal medical examination on board the ship before being flown back to Florida by helicopter.

The disastrous re-entry plunge through Earth's atmosphere that followed the return from orbit caused temperatures outside the capsule to increase to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,930 degrees Celsius).

Two sets of parachutes opened above the capsule during its final descent, reducing the fall to around 15 mph (24 kph) before the ship hit the water off Jacksonville, Florida.