After a 6-month mission, the “SpaceX” capsule returns 4 astronauts to Earth

(Archyde.com)
A team of astronauts returned to Earth early Friday morning, after a flight launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station; The team landed in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida, ending six months of diverse orbital research that ranged from growing chili peppers in space to robotics.
The team is the third longest-serving team that SpaceX has sent for the benefit of the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), staying on the International Space Station.
The Crew Dragon capsule, carrying three American astronauts from NASA and a colleague from the European Space Agency from Germany, parachuted into calm waters in the dark at the conclusion of a more than 23-hour journey from the International Space Station.
A joint live broadcast between NASA and SpaceX via the Internet transmitted the landing of the capsule at about 12:45 am EST (04:45 GMT). The crew of the spacecraft, called Endurance, arrived at the space station on November 11.
Billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of electric car company Tesla, founded SpaceX in 2002. SpaceX provides Falcon 9 rockets and Crew Dragon capsules that currently transport NASA astronauts to orbit from Earth American.
The company also controls those flights and deals with vehicle recovery operations, while NASA prepares crews and launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and manages US operations at the space station. The company has launched a total of seven manned space flights in the past two years.
The crew returned to Earth with a cargo of about 250 kilograms, including research samples on the International Space Station.
In addition to performing regular maintenance while in orbit about 400 km above Earth, the astronauts have contributed to hundreds of scientific and technical experiments.
Highlights included studies of gene expression in cotton cells cultured in space, gas-flame combustion under microgravity conditions, and sequencing of bacterial DNA inside the station. The team also tested new robots and harvested hot peppers grown in orbit.