Splashdown confirmed for Sophie Adenot

What happened

After re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and slowing down from around 28 000 km/h to about 500 km/h, the drogue chutes deployed at an altitude of about 5500 m, followed by the four main chutes approximately one minute later. ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot returned to Earth with Crew-12 after her nearly eight-month εpsilon mission to the International Space Station, splashing down off the coast of California, USA, at 15:34 GMT/17:34 CEST on 8 October 2026.

Sophie, together with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, undocked on 7 October at 12:05 GMT/14:05 CEST, beginning a 27 hours and 29 minutes return journey back to Earth. Splashdown off California The splashdown took place near Los Angeles, off the coast of California, where joint SpaceX/NASA/ESA/ROSCOSMOS recovery crews were waiting for the Dragon Freedom spacecraft.

After the splashdown, fast boat teams immediately headed toward the Dragon capsule, reaching it within minutes to perform safety checks. The team aboard the SpaceX recovery vessel Shannon lifted Dragon aboard before opening the side hatch and helping each crew member out of the spacecraft.