Astronauts returning home from space station splash down off Florida coast

CNN) Four astronauts boarded a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and returned home from the International Space Station on Friday, bringing an end to their nearly six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The astronauts — NASA's Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins as well as Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the European Space Agency or ESA — shared goodbye hugs with other astronauts on the space station and strapped into their spacecraft around 10 a.m. ET.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft left its docking port at the ISS around noon ET and made a gradual trek home toward the edge of Earth's thick inner atmosphere. Then, the capsule lit up its thrusters again to orient itself as it began its reentry. This step began to slow the spacecraft from its orbital speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,164 kilometers per hour). A heat shield kept the astronauts protected as the fiery swoop back toward Earth heated the spacecraft's exterior to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius).