Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about interesting discoveries, scientific advances, and more.
CNN
—
Four astronauts are heading to splashdown off the coast of Florida after a six-month stay on the International Space Station on Sunday, days after Hurricane Idalia pummeled parts of the state.
The astronauts, members of the Crew 6 mission jointly operated by NASA and SpaceX, boarded the Crew Dragon capsule on Sunday and departed the space station at 7:05 a.m. ET. The crew will spend a day aboard the 13-foot-wide spacecraft as it navigates Earth’s orbit toward its target landing site.
The Crew Dragon capsule is expected to splash down at 12:17 a.m. ET.
NASA said it was monitoring the effects of Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast Wednesday morning. The storm hit northern Florida before moving through southern Georgia and into the Carolinas.
The four astronauts heading to splashdown included NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Horberg, the second astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to fly into space. They include Sultan Alneyadi and Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fezyaev.
The group spent six months in the orbiting laboratory after launching into the station in March. For the past week, Crew 6 astronauts have been working to greet and take over the crew 7 team members who arrived at the space station on Sunday.
During the mission in space, the Crew-6 astronauts were scheduled to monitor More than 200 science and technology projects.
“We were able to accomplish a lot during the mission,” Hoberg said during a remote press conference with astronauts on Aug. 23. “We visited two SpaceX cargo vehicles, the CRS-27 and 28 missions, which are loaded with a lot of science.” And as a crew, we conducted a total of three spacewalks. . ”
During their stay, the Crew-6 astronauts also hosted the crew of Axiom Mission 2. The crew consisted of a former NASA astronaut and three paying customers, including an American businessman and two Saudi astronauts. The flight was part of a plan to regularly fly tourists and other paying tourists to the International Space Station, as NASA seeks to increase the amount of commercial activity in low Earth orbit.
“This was a big adventure and a lot of fun,” Hoburg added.
The group also recognized fellow NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who traveled to the space station aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft with two other astronauts last September. Rubio has spent nearly 350 days on the space station, and will soon break the record for the longest time spent in microgravity by a U.S. astronaut. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei set the current record of 355 days in 2022.
Mr. Rubio’s return was scheduled for spring. But the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that carried him and two Russian colleagues to the space station suffered a coolant leak late last year. Officials with Russia’s space agency Roscosmos later determined the spacecraft was not safe enough to return the cosmonauts, sending a replacement vehicle and extending the ongoing mission by six months.
“We’ve been here for six months,” Hoberg said. “When Frank flew into space, he thought he would be here for six months, but halfway through the mission he realized it was going to be extended to a year. His leadership here …It was incredible.”