Splashdown

And then they were back, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, about 800 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii, at 12:50 p.m. EDT on July 24. The three astronauts are in the lift raft, along with a U.S. Navy diver. But those aren't wetsuits they're wearing. Given the huge unknowns about what the astronauts might have encountered in space, they're wearing biological isolation garments. Shortly, they'll be picked up by a helicopter from the U.S.S. Hornet.

July 16, 2009 4:00 AM PDT

Photo by: NASA

| Caption by: Jonathan E. Skillings