SpaceX Crew-12 mission astronauts aboard Crew Dragon Freedom returned to Earth on Thursday (Oct. 8), after undocking from the International Space Station at 1205 UTC Wednesday (Oct. 7). The capsule executed a deorbit burn before entering the atmosphere at about 1522 UTC, achieving a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles at 1534 UTC after a roughly 27-hour trip.

Following splashdown, the capsule was secured by recovery teams aboard the Shannon ship, and the astronauts -- Jessica Meir (NASA Commander), Jack Hathaway (NASA Pilot), Sophie Adenot (ESA Mission Specialist), and Andrey Fedyaev (Roscosmos Mission Specialist) -- were lifted aboard for initial medical evaluations before being transported by helicopter to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for rehabilitation. Crew members.

Meir and Fedyaev were experienced space travelers, while Hathaway and Adenot were on their first spaceflights.

"The crew is doing well. They were all smiles exiting the capsule," Bill Spetch, deputy manager of commercial, NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said during a post-splashdown press conference Thursday. "It's great to have them back after 237 days in space, 235 of those on the space station."

During the mission, which lasted 237 days (nearly eight months), the four astronauts conducted extensive scientific research, including tests on stem cell production, IV fluid generation, and the effects of microgravity on bone density and blood flow.

The Crew-12 astronauts felt a mix of emotions about their homecoming, as big transitions are always bittersweet. Indeed, Meir gave us a sense of this a few weeks back.

"What I'm looking forward to most is seeing my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter,” Meir said during a Sept. 16 call with reporters from the station.

"I'm so looking forward to seeing nature again," she added, "feeling the breeze on my face, the wind rustling through the leaves, experiencing all those things that we don't have up here. But I will very, very much miss being weightless all the time and the incredible views that we have."

The Crew-12 astronauts launched to the ISS aboard Dragon Grace atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 13. Their arrival brought the station up to its normal complement of seven crewmembers. It had been operating with a skeleton crew of three since Jan. 15, when SpaceX's Crew-11 mission headed home a month early to deal with a medical issue experienced by one of its astronauts, NASA's Mike Fincke.

That was the first medical evacuation in the long history of the ISS. But it was not an emergency situation, NASA officials stressed at the time, and Fincke is doing fine now here on terra firma. (He retired in August with a total of 549 days in space, the fourth-most ever for a NASA astronaut). Crew-12, in turn, was relieved by the four astronauts of the Crew-13 mission, which arrived at the ISS last Thursday (Oct. 1).

At the Windows and Surface Event 2026 on Wednesday, Microsoft and NVIDIA unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra, a premium device powered by the NVIDIA RTX Spark superchip, marking a significant push into local AI and high-performance computing. Also announced, are the general availability of Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC) for AI agent governance; a new ecosystem of RTX Spark PCs from major partners, alongside updates to Windows Hybrid Intelligence for Copilot.

The centerpiece, the Surface Laptop Ultra, is Microsoft’s most powerful Surface laptop, featuring a 15-inch PixelSense Ultra display and an NVIDIA RTX Spark platform that combines a Blackwell RTX GPU and Grace CPU with up to 128 GB of unified memory.

Priced starting at $2,599 (base configuration with 24 GB RAM) and up to $5,899 (top tier with 128 GB RAM and 1 TB storage), Surface Laptop Ultra offers up to 1 petaflop of FP4 AI performance and can run local AI models exceeding 120 billion parameters. It ships on October 16, 2026, alongside a compact desktop alternative, the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box which is priced at $5,999 and ships in November.

Beyond Microsoft’s own hardware, the RTX Spark platform expands to a broader ecosystem of Windows PCs from partners including Lenovo, Asus, Dell, HP, MSI, and Gigabyte. These devices, ranging from laptops to compact desktops, are designed to deliver high-end AI and graphics performance, with many already available for pre-order.

On the software side, Microsoft detailed its vision for Windows Hybrid Intelligence, enhancing Copilot with deeper local capabilities. This integration allows Copilot to seamlessly switch between local on-device models and cloud-based models, improving privacy and reducing latency for everyday tasks.

To support the growing use of AI agents, Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), a technology that isolates and governs AI agents across Windows, macOS, and Linux environments, ensuring secure and controlled access to system resources. The tech giant also showcased partnerships for local AI integration, including Meta’s Muse personal agent coming to Windows.

Elon Musk in a Wednesday X post, alleged that unnamed Indian "oligarchs" are blocking Starlink’s entry into the country to protect their "monopolistic chokehold," calling the delay a "crime against the people of India." His post responded to data showing that 11,256 of India’s listed villages still lacked 4G coverage as of May 2026, with Musk adding, "You can guess who they are."

In remarks earlier Wednesday at the India Mobile Congress 2026, Lauren Dreyer, Vice President of SpaceX’s Starlink Business Operations, said that the company is ready to serve India once final government approvals are granted.

Dreyer highlighted that Starlink has invested in local infrastructure, including 20 gateway sites with hundreds of antennas, and has established India-specific security controls to keep user data within the country.

While Starlink holds a satcom permit and authorization from India's space regulator, commercial operations remain stalled pending security approvals and spectrum allocation.

Dreyer confirmed that Starlink has spent five years working with Indian regulators and telecom operators, signing MoUs with companies like Airtel and Jio to complement existing connectivity.

SpaceX aims to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of 100% connectivity, particularly for remote classrooms, telemedicine, and disaster recovery. Company sources say Starlink is expected to launch and make significant inroads