• Jessica Meir — NASA astronaut
• Jack Hathaway — NASA astronaut
• Sophie Adenot — ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut
• Andrey Fedyaev — Roscosmos cosmonaut

The mix of agencies reflects the long-standing practice of international cooperation aboard the space station, where crews from partner nations live and work together regardless of political tensions on the ground.

How did the spacecraft come home?

Crew Dragon Freedom returned the way SpaceX capsules now routinely do: by splashing down in the ocean rather than landing on solid ground. The photograph taken at splashdown shows the spacecraft descending under four large parachutes, which slow the capsule from high speed during its fall through the atmosphere to a pace gentle enough for a safe water landing.

A splashdown in the Pacific off the California coast marks the end point of a journey that began months earlier with launch, followed by docking at the International Space Station and roughly eight months of life and work in orbit. Recovery teams then retrieve the capsule and its occupants from the water — the standard final step of a Crew Dragon mission.

What comes next?

With Crew-12 home, the astronauts and cosmonaut will readjust to gravity after nearly two-thirds of a year in weightlessness. Time aboard the station typically involves scientific research, station maintenance, and technology demonstrations, though NASA's announcement of the return focused on the splashdown itself and the identity of the crew.

NASA has published a gallery of photographs from the recovery operation, taken by Keegan Barber and other agency photographers, documenting the capsule's descent and its final moments on the water.

The safe return of Freedom closes out another chapter in the commercial crew program, in which SpaceX spacecraft under NASA contract ferry astronauts to and from the orbiting laboratory — in this case, bringing home a crew of four who spent nearly eight months living and working roughly 400 kilometers above the Earth.