Four astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday, parachuting into the Pacific off the Southern California coast, after hustling to the International Space Station five months ago to relieve the stuck test pilots of Boeing’s Starliner.

It marked the first time in half a century a NASA crew splashed down off Southern California.

Arriving were NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov. They launched in March as replacements for the two NASA astronauts assigned to Starliner’s botched demo.

Their SpaceX capsule splashed down at 8:33 a.m. Saturday, a day after departing the orbiting lab.

Starliner malfunctions kept Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams at the space station for more than nine months, instead of a week as planned. NASA ordered Boeing’s new

See Full Page