The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports, “After nearly half a year in space, the four astronauts of Crew-4 are set to climb back into the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom for its return trip to Florida.” NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, along with the ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in April and have spent nearly 170 days onboard the station. Upon its departure, Crew Dragon Freedom will be making its first return to Earth.
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Tag: From ISS
Four Astronauts Returning from ISS on SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule
CNN reports, “Three NASA astronauts and a European astronaut are returning home from the International Space Station, capping off their six-month mission during which they worked alongside Russian cosmonauts and hosted the first all-private crew to visit the orbiting outpost.” CNN reports the astronauts “climbed aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after midnight and detached from the space station in the early hours of Thursday morning,” and will “spend all day Thursday free flying through orbit as their spacecraft maneuvers closer to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.” The capsule “will streak back into the atmosphere while traveling at more than 22 times the speed of sound” and then “deploy parachutes and float to a splashdown landing off the coast of Florida.”
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NASA to Announce New Plan for Return of Wilmore and Williams
Ars Technica reports, “NASA should soon announce a new plan for the return of two of its astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to Earth as early as March 19. This is about two weeks earlier than the existing public timeline for their flight home from the International Space Station. Bringing the two astronauts back to Earth next month will require some shuffling of spacecraft here on the ground and a delay of the privately operated Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station to later in the spring.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)
Mission to Retrieve Stuck Astronauts Delayed
Reuters reports, “NASA and SpaceX on Wednesday delayed the launch of a replacement crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station that would have set in motion the long-awaited homecoming of U.S. astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. NASA had been set to launch a SpaceX rocket from Florida carrying a replacement crew for the International Space Station in a mission that would set up the return to Earth of Wilmore and Williams – stuck in space for nine months after a trip on Boeing’s faulty Starliner.”
Full Story (Reuters)