Crew-8 splashes down off coast of Florida after more than 200 days in orbit

After more than 200 days in orbit, the Crew-8 astronauts are finally back home from the International Space Station.

SpaceX confirmed that the undocking happened as planned on Wednesday and splashdown happened early Friday at a landing site off the coast of Florida.

Crew-8 launched from Kennedy Space Center aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on March 4.

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NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, commander; Michael Barratt, pilot; and Jeanette Epps, mission specialist, will joined Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, also a mission specialist, in the same SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule that was used for the Demo-2, Crew-2 and Crew-6 flights, as well as Axiom Mission 1.

The three NASA astronauts and one cosmonaut focused on more than 200 science experiments at the space station, including studies of motion sickness and human movement in microgravity, according to NASA.

The crew was set to undock on Tuesday, but weather conditions at multiple splashdown sites were unfavorable, NASA said.

The astronauts were originally supposed to return in August, but their return was put on hold while mission managers figured out issues with the Boeing Starliner capsule.