A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts concluded NASA’s Crew-10 rotation mission with a pinpoint splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 8:33 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday. Recovery vessels reached the spacecraft, dubbed Endurance, minutes after it settled into calm seas off San Diego, confirming the crew’s safe return following a 17-hour descent from orbit. Commander Anne McClain and pilot Nichole Ayers of NASA, together with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, spent 148 days aboard the International Space Station after launching on 14 March from Florida. Their five-month stay replaced two NASA astronauts marooned by Boeing’s malfunctioning Starliner test flight, continuing NASA’s Commercial Crew program that alternates seats among U.S., Japanese and Russian spacefarers. During Expedition 73 the quartet conducted more than 200 experiments on plant biology, cellular behavior and technology for deep-space travel. Saturday’s landing was SpaceX’s third crewed Pacific recovery and the first for a NASA crew in half a century, underscoring the agency’s shift away from Florida splashdowns to lessen debris-risk over populated areas. Post-flight briefings indicated NASA and SpaceX aim to certify Dragon for missions of up to eight months as they prepare future crew rotations.