After a 6.5-month mission on the International Space Station, the four astronauts of SpaceX’s Crew-7 are preparing to return to Earth on Tuesday morning. The Dragon capsule, named Endurance, undocked from the ISS on Monday and is expected to splash down off the coast of Florida around 5:50 a.m. EDT.
NASA TV will be providing live coverage of the reentry and recovery activities starting at 4:30 a.m. EDT. The Crew-7 mission includes astronauts from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.
The mission initially launched in August 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, marking the first spaceflight for two of the astronauts. Crew-7 had a brief overlap with the astronauts of SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission, which arrived at the ISS last week.
SpaceX has now completed eight operational astronaut flights to the ISS for NASA, with Boeing also holding a commercial crew contract. Boeing’s first astronaut flight using the Starliner capsule is scheduled to launch in early May for a roughly 10-day stay on the ISS.
The safe return of the Crew-7 astronauts will mark another successful mission for SpaceX and further solidify the company’s reputation as a reliable partner for crewed missions to the ISS. Stay tuned for the live coverage of their reentry and recovery on NASA TV as the astronauts make their way back to Earth.
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