Strapped into the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Friday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico to close out an extended 235-day expedition to the International Space Station.

After a high-speed re-entry above Central America and a steep descent to the Gulf, Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, astronaut Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin settled to a gentle, on-target splashdown south of Pensacola, Florida, at 3:29 a.m. EDT.

A SpaceX team stationed nearby was on the scene within minutes to stabilize the capsule, make sure no toxic propellant fumes were present and then to haul it aboard a nearby recovery ship where NASA flight surgeons and support personnel were standing by to carry the returning station fliers out of the crew cabin.

Despite two hours of exercise per day throughout their stay in orbit, returning station astronauts need about a month or more to regain their “land legs” after months in the weightless environment of space.

As such, Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin were expected to be carried out of the Crew Dragon and placed on stretchers before being rolled inside the ship for initial medical checks and calls to family and friends. All four appeared in good spirits, smiling and waving as they were rolled inside.

Mission duration was 235 days three hours and 35 minutes, during which the spacecraft circled the globe 3,776 times covering 100 million miles since launch from the Kennedy Space Center on March 3.

The crew originally expected to return to Earth in September. But the flight slipped into early October in the wake of a decision to delay the launch of their Crew 9 replacements because of problems with Boeing’s Starliner crew ferry ship.

NASA eventually ruled out bringing Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams back to Earth aboard the Boeing spacecraft. Instead, the Starliner came down without its crew on September 7 and Crew 9 was launched with just two passengers — Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gobrunov — on Sept. 28.

That freed up two seats aboard the Crew Dragon for Wilmore and Williams to use when they come home next February with Hague and Gorbunov.

Sorting all that out pushed the Crew 8 departure into October. NASA and SpaceX then were repeatedly held up by high winds and rough seas at the approved splashdown sites, much of it related to hurricanes Helene and Milton.

But this week, conditions in the Gulf finally met NASA’s safety guidelines and the crew was cleared to undock and head for home.

With Crew 8 safely back on Earth, the Crew 9 crew will board their own Crew Dragon capsule early Sunday, Nov. 3, undock from the Harmony module’s forward port and then redock at its space-facing port.

The next day, an ISS-bound SpaceX cargo ship is scheduled for launch from the Kennedy Space Center. After an automated rendezvous, the ship will dock at the just vacated forward port on Nov. 5, election day in the United States.

A 15-year-old boy was charged Thursday with murder in the shooting deaths of his parents and three of his siblings at a home in Fall City, Washington, according to court documents obtained by CBS News.

The teen, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was charged with five counts of aggravated murder in the slayings of his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, two brothers, ages 9 and 13, and his 7-year-old sister, per King County court records.  

He was also charged with one count of attempted murder for shooting and wounding his 11-year-old sister, the documents read.

That girl was in “satisfactory condition” at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital spokesperson Susan Gregg told the Associated Press Tuesday.

Autopsies performed by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that all five victims died of gunshot wounds. The handgun used in the shooting was believed to belong to the victim’s father, the court records state.

According to the charging documents, just before 5 a.m. Monday, the suspect called 911 with a false story in which he claimed that his 13-year-old brother “just shot my whole family and committed suicide too” at the family’s home in Fall City, which is a community located near Seattle.

However, at about the same time as that call, 911 dispatchers received a second call from a neighbor who lives about a quarter-mile away. That neighbor said the suspect’s 11-year-old sister had ran to his house and was bleeding from what appeared to be a gunshot wound, the documents said.

The girl said her entire family had been fatally shot and identified her 15-year-old brother as the shooter. The girl told dispatchers she was also shot by her brother and “then described holding her breath and playing dead,” the documents read. The girl later told detectives that she had escaped through a bedroom window.

Deputies responded to the Humiston home, where they found the suspect in the driveway and took him into custody, court records show. The five victims were found dead inside the home.

In a hospital interview with detectives later that day, the suspect’s surviving sister said that she identified the firearm used in the shooting as “her father’s silver Glock handgun,” court documents state.

She said that her father kept the pistol in a small lockbox that “he would sometimes put by the front door so he could bring it to work,” the documents read. She told detectives that the suspect was “the only one who knew the combination to the Glock lockbox.”

Investigators determined that the suspect “systematically murdered” his parents and siblings and “then staged the scene prior to the arrival of first responders to make it appear” that the murders had been committed by his 11-year-old brother, documents read. 

The court documents did not speculate on a motive.  

The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned Friday afternoon. The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday that the suspect is in custody at the Clark Child and Family Justice Center, which is a juvenile facility.

The teen is currently being charged as a juvenile, and prosecutors said a judge will determine whether his case “will be moved to adult court.”

In a statement Tuesday, public defenders representing the suspect said that “our client is a 15-year-old boy who enjoys mountain biking and fishing and has no criminal history.”