After a six-month delay, three astronauts and a cosmonaut finally began their journey back home after the SpaceX Dragon capsule separated from the International Space Station (ISS) in the early hours of Thursday.
Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin left the ISS aboard the Dragon capsule around 2:40 am (IST) on Thursday.
After a journey of about 34 hours, the three astronauts and a cosmonaut from Crew 8 are likely to land near the Florida coast around 1:00 PM (IST) on Friday. The public can watch live coverage of the disconnection process, which will be streamed live on NASA+ and the agency's website.
Hurricane Milton in the way
While the astronauts were scheduled to return for the first time on October 7, the docking was called off due to Hurricane Milton in Florida, which developed into a Category 3 storm.
NASA stated that the return flight was postponed several times due to adverse weather conditions near the splashdown locations.
The mission, which launched on March 5 from the Kennedy Space Center at Launch Complex 39A in Florida, consisted of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavor, into orbit. This was the crew's eighth commercial rotational mission to the ISS.
Astronauts Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin's journey to the ISS was a scientific expedition with more than 200 experiments and technology demonstrations.
Although the astronauts were initially scheduled to return to Earth in September, the Starliner experienced technical problems, prompting NASA to return the capsule without a crew.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who launched on the Starliner, were originally scheduled for a week-long stay on the ISS but have now been unable to return for four months.
As part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, the Crew-8 mission will return important and time-sensitive research to Earth, the space agency said in its official release.
