A U.S. SpaceX ship carrying Japan's Soichi Noguchi and three American astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday following the group's six-month mission at the International Space Station.

The three Americans are Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, all from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The Crew Dragon capsule splashed down at 2:56 a.m. in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, the first time a manned U.S. craft has reached Earth under darkness since the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.

It was launched in November from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the second manned flight to the ISS by the commercially built spacecraft.

The four astronauts were initially planning to return in late April but their departure was pushed back due to unfavorable weather conditions.

The crew members later exited the capsule one by one and Noguchi was the last to do so.

While the four were on the ISS, another SpaceX ship ferried Japan's Akihiko Hoshide, 52, and three other astronauts to the orbiting laboratory, putting two Japanese astronauts in space simultaneously for the first time since 2010.

Source: ANNnewsCH