SpaceX brings 4 astronauts home, then launches 53 satellites

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX has returned four astronauts from the International Space Station with a midnight splashdown off the Florida coast. Friday’s (May 6, 2022) homecoming for the three Americans and one German caps the busiest month yet for Elon Musk’s space taxi service. The astronauts rode back to Earth in the same capsule that delivered them to the space station last November. They departed the orbiting lab Thursday, after spending nearly a week with their replacements. Barely five hours after splashdown, the company founded by SpaceX in 2002 launched a fresh batch of internet satellites from Cape Canaveral.