HOUSTON, USA, Oct. 8, 2026 - Four astronauts returned to Earth on October 8, 2026, after an eight-month mission aboard the International Space Station.^[1] The Crew-12 mission splashed down on schedule off the coast of California at 11:34 local time.^[2] The crew had launched in February on an emergency mission to replace an ISS crew member who fell ill, NASA's first medical evacuation in 65 years of human spaceflight.^[3] Impact Insight. Crew capsules return by slowing down in the atmosphere behind a heat shield and then descending under parachutes to a splashdown at sea. The link to planetary defense is indirect: long missions teach how to keep crews healthy far from home, a capability any future crewed visit to an asteroid would need.