Four space station crew members head for Friday return to Earth

Wrapping up an extended 235-day mission, 3 NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut strapped into their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and undocked from nan International Space Station connected Wednesday, targeting a pre-dawn Friday splashdown successful nan Gulf of Mexico.

With Crew 8 "Endeavour" commandant Matthew Dominick and co-pilot Michael Barrett monitoring cockpit displays, flanked connected nan correct by cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin and connected nan near by NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps, nan Crew Dragon undocked from nan lab's Harmony module astatine 5:05 p.m. EDT and slow backed away.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry vessel carrying 3 NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut tin beryllium seen framed betwixt segments of nan International Space Station's robot limb moments aft undocking from nan International Space Station. Splashdown successful nan Gulf of Mexico is expected early Friday. NASA TV

"Endeavour, departing," called abstraction position commandant Sunita Williams, ringing nan ship's doorbell pursuing naval tradition. "Fair winds and pursuing seas."

Left down aboard nan position were Crew 9 commandant Nick Hague and his crewmates, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov and Boeing Starliner astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Williams, on pinch Soyuz cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and NASA crewmate Donald Pettit.

If each goes well, nan Crew 8 Dragon will scatter down successful nan Gulf of Mexico astatine 3:29 a.m. Friday to adjacent retired a astir eight-month-long ngo spanning 3,776 orbits and 100 cardinal miles since motorboat from nan Kennedy Space Center connected March 3.

The returning unit members during pre-launch training successful a Crew Dragon simulator (left to right): cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, aviator Mike Barratt, commandant Matt Dominick and astronaut Jeanette Epps. NASA

The unit primitively expected to return to Earth successful September, but nan formation slipped into early October successful nan aftermath of a determination to hold nan Crew 9 motorboat from precocious August to precocious September to supply an eventual thrust location for Wilmore and Williams.

The Starliner returned to Earth Sept. 7 without its unit connected committee because of information concerns. The Crew 9 Dragon past was launched Sept. 28 pinch just 2 passengers, Hague and Gorbunov. That freed up 2 seats for Starliner commandant Wilmore and co-pilot Williams, who will return to Earth adjacent February pinch Hague and Gorbunov.

Sorting each that retired pushed nan Crew 8 departure into October. Dominick and institution past were many times held up by precocious winds and unsmooth seas, overmuch of it hurricane related, astatine splashdown sites successful nan Gulf of Mexico and on Florida's eastbound coast.

But forecasters expected favorable conditions Friday, and nan Crew 8 fliers were yet cleared to proceed pinch undocking.

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