SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission leaves space station and heads for home

October 14, 2022

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SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission is headed dwelling.

Crew-4’s Dragon capsule, named Freedom, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday (Oct. 14) at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT), ending a 5.5-month orbital keep and overcoming two weather-related undocking delays Wednesday (Oct. 12) and Thursday (Oct. 13). Undocking was additionally delayed by half-hour on Friday to confirm alignment of the hatches between the 2 spacecraft.

“We want you godspeed and protected re-entry,” a member of Expedition 68 informed the departing crew within the moments after undocking.

Freedom is now on its means again to Earth, and it ought to get right here quickly: Splashdown off the coast of Florida is anticipated at round 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT) on Friday, NASA officers mentioned. Splashdown will happen close to Jacksonville, Florida, with Tallahassee as a possible backup location on Saturday (Oct. 15), NASA officers mentioned.

You may watch that milestone reside right here at Area.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency (opens in new tab). NASA and SpaceX even have mentioned they plan to carry a post-splashdown name with reporters, which you’ll tune into as properly. The timing for that decision has not but been launched.

Associated: Amazing photos of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission

As its title suggests, Crew-4 is the fourth contracted astronaut mission that SpaceX has flown to the ISS for NASA. The crewmembers are NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins and the European Area Company’s Samantha Cristoforetti.

The quartet launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 27 and arrived on the orbiting lab that very same day. The astronauts carried out greater than 200 scientific experiments throughout their time without work Earth, NASA officers have mentioned.

Cristoforetti made historical past through the mission, turning into the primary European lady ever to command the ISS. She handed the reins of the station over to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev throughout a change-of-command ceremony on Tuesday (Oct. 11).

Although Crew-4 is gone, the orbiting lab nonetheless hosts a SpaceX mission: the four-person Crew-5 arrived on Oct. 6 for a roughly five-month keep.

Like SpaceX, Boeing holds a contract with NASA’s Industrial Crew Program. Boeing is gearing up for its first astronaut mission to the ISS, a crewed take a look at flight that would launch as early as February 2023.

Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide concerning the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).