Four space station fliers undock and head for Friday splashdown to wrap up extended mission
Wrapping up an extended 235-day mission, three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut strapped into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and undocked from the International Space Station on Wednesday, targeting a pre-dawn Friday splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
With Crew 8 “Endeavour” commander Matthew Dominick and co-pilot Michael Barrett monitoring cockpit displays, flanked on the right by cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin and on the left by NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, the Crew Dragon undocked from the lab’s Harmony module at 5:05 p.m. EDT and slowly backed away.
NASA TV
“Endeavour, departing,” called space station commander Sunita Williams, ringing the ship’s bell following naval tradition. “Fair winds and following seas.”
returned to Earth Sept. 7 without its crew on board because of safety concerns. The Crew 9 Dragon then was launched Sept. 28 with just two passengers, Hague and Gorbunov. That freed up two seats for Starliner commander Wilmore and co-pilot Williams, who will return to Earth next February with Hague and Gorbunov.
Sorting all that out pushed the Crew 8 departure into October. Dominick and company then were repeatedly held up by high winds and rough seas, much of it hurricane related, at splashdown sites in the Gulf of Mexico and along Florida’s east coast.
But forecasters expected favorable conditions Friday, and the Crew 8 fliers were finally cleared to proceed with undocking.
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Source: cbsnews.com