Astronaut crew returning to Earth after six months on ISS
NASA's Crew-3 mission was returning home to Earth on Thursday after six months aboard the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft with NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Tom Marshburn, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer undocked from the orbital laboratory overnight.
Their 23.5 hour journey back should see them splash down off the coast of Florida at 12:43 am on Friday.
They leave behind the one Italian and three American astronauts of Crew-4, and three Russian cosmonauts. Ahead of departure, Marshburn handed command of the station over to Russian Oleg Artemyev.
During their mission, Crew-3 carried out hundreds of scientific experiments, including growing chiles in space to add to knowledge of cultivating crops on long term missions, exploring how concrete hardens in space, and Earth monitoring.
"Hopefully, @NASA research will help w/ H20 purification & carbon dioxide reductions but the rest is up to us."
The ISS now awaits docking with an uncrewed Boeing Starliner capsule, which is set to launch from Florida on May 19.
NASA is looking to certify a second company to ferry astronauts to the region of space called Low Earth Orbit, leaving it to develop its super heavy space launch system (SLS) rocket for missions to the Moon, and eventually Mars.
