After several delays due to a devastating hurricane, three NASA astronauts – Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps – and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin will leave the International Space Station (ISS). Undocking of the Dragon capsule from SpaceX took place on October 24 at 5:05 p.m. EDT (2105 GMT). The Crew-8 mission’s journey home will last about 34 hours, and the astronauts are expected to land on Friday, October 25 at around 3:30 a.m. EDT (0730 GMT). The mission should end with a splashing dawn off the coast of Florida.
The crew’s return has been postponed several times. The first attempt on October 7 was canceled due to Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida as a Category 3 storm. After the bad conditions, the weather at the landing sites remained unfavorable for some time, which posed a danger not only to the capsule during reentry, but also to the rescue teams.
The delay extended the duration of the mission, which began back on March 5. The astronauts were initially scheduled to return in September, but their flight was extended because Dragon was temporarily serving as a rescue boat. This was necessary after problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The Starliner was returned to Earth without a crew in September, and the astronauts who arrived at the ISS on it – Butch Williams and Suni Wilmore – are being forced to stay at the orbital outpost much longer than planned.
The new Crew-9 mission, which already arrived at the end of last month, delivered two crew members to the station – astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. This capsule has two empty seats, which will be used for the return of Wilmore and Williams to Earth in February 2024.
During their eight-month stay on the ISS, Crew–8 astronauts conducted scientific research and serviced spacecraft, including the problematic Starliner, and in their free time photographed views of the Earth from space.
Earlier, we reported on how Crew Dragon capsules were able to land vertically, like Falcon 9 rockets.
Provided by Space
