SpaceX’s Crew-5 astronaut mission for NASA is scheduled to depart the Worldwide Area Station on Thursday (March 9), and you may watch the motion dwell.
A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the Crew-5 quartet — NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, cosmonaut Anna Kikina and Japan’s Koichi Wakata — is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 GMT) on Thursday, wrapping up 5 months in orbit.
You possibly can watch the Dragon’s departure dwell right here at Area.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency (opens in new tab) . You may also watch the capsule’s ocean splashdown, which is anticipated to happen round 9:25 p.m. EST on Friday (March 10; 0225 GMT on March 11).
Associated: Auroras, spacecraft mods and more: SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts reflect on their time in orbit
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance approaches the Worldwide Area Station with 4 Crew-5 astronauts aboard on Oct. 6, 2022. (Picture credit score: NASA/Kjell Lindgren)
Crew-5 launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Oct. 5, 2022. It was a historic liftoff, making Mann the primary Native American girl to achieve space and Kikina the primary Russian to fly to orbit on a non-public American spacecraft.
The Crew-5 astronauts have spent an eventful 5 months off Earth. They have been handled to some gorgeous auroral displays , for instance, and two Russian automobiles docked to the ISS — a Soyuz crew-carrying craft and a robotic Progress freighter — sprang leaks throughout the spaceflyers’ keep on the station.
Crew-5’s Dragon, named Endurance, was briefly modified to accommodate an additional passenger — one of many three Soyuz astronauts, NASA’s Frank Rubio — in case an emergency evacuation of the ISS have been required. However these mods have been eliminated final month, after Russia launched a replacement Soyuz that can take Rubio and his two Russian crewmates residence to Earth this fall.
There’ll nonetheless be a SpaceX mission on the ISS after Crew-5 departs on Thursday: Crew-6 arrived at the orbiting lab early Friday morning (March 3) aboard the Dragon Endeavour.
The Crew-6 astronauts — NASA’s Woody Hoburg and Stephen Bowen, the United Arab Emirates’ Sultan Al Neyadi and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — are scheduled to dwell aboard the ISS for the subsequent six months.
Mike Wall is the writer of “ Out There (opens in new tab) ” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab) . Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab) .
