Huginn has landed
In brief
The Danish ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen returned to Earth with Crew-7 after his six-month Huginn mission to the International Space Station, splashing down off the coast of Florida at 09:47 GMT/10:47 CET on 12 March 2024.
In-depth
Andreas together with NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, undocked on 11 March 2024 at 15:20 GMT/16:20 CET, making for an 18-hours return journey to Earth from the Space Station.
Andreas was the pilot of the Dragon vehicle, ensuring the spacecraft’s performance and systems as they made their way to the Space Station. This was the first time a European astronaut served as pilot on a Dragon spacecraft.
Thumbs up for a great mission
The splashdown took place near Pensacola, off the west coast of Florida, US, where SpaceX recovery crew were waiting for the Dragon Endurance. 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, followed by the four main chutes.
After being picked up by the recovery vessel Megan, the hatch on the side of the Dragon capsule was opened and each crew member was helped exiting the Dragon. Andreas Mogensen was the first person out, with a big smile and thumbs up.
The Huginn mission
Andreas spent 199 days in space, 197 of them on the International Space Station, after launching on 26 August 2023 from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, US. It was the second space flight of Andreas, after his first mission in 2015, called iriss.
The mission name, Huginn, was chosen by Andreas after suggestions from two Danes. The name ties Norse mythology and knowledge together with space exploration: Huginn was the raven of Norse god Odin, that flew together with Muninn out into the world to gather knowledge. Huginn and Muninn then told Odin about what they had seen at the end of each day. Andreas conducted science and gathered knowledge throughout his mission and told us about his journey through his pictures and videos from the International Space Station.
This ties together with ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt who launched on his Muninn mission in January 2024 to the International Space Station, marking the first time two Scandinavians were in space together.