The fourth long-duration astronaut team launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA safely departed the orbiting outpost on Friday to begin their flight back to Earth, capping a science mission of nearly six months.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying three U.S. NASA astronauts and an Italian crewmate from the European Space Agency undocked from the ISS Harmony module at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT) to embark on a return flight expected to last roughly five hours.
Live video during a NASA webcast of the uncoupling showed the capsule drifting away from the station as the two vehicles soared high over the North Atlantic.
Wearing helmeted white-and-black spacesuits, the four astronauts were seen strapped into the crew cabin shortly before the spacecraft separated from the station, orbiting some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kph).
A series of several brief rocket thrusts autonomously pushed the capsule safely clear of the ISS and lowered its orbit to line up the capsule for later atmospheric re-entry and splashdown.
If all goes smoothly, the Crew Dragon, dubbed Freedom, will parachute into the sea off the Atlantic coast of Florida at 4:55 p.m. (2055 GMT)
The Freedom crew, Americans Kjell Lindgren, 49, Jessica Watkins, 34, and Bob Hines, 47, as well as Italy's Samantha Cristoferetti, 45, arrived at the station on April 27 following a SpaceX launch that day. Watkins became the first African-American woman to serve on a long-duration mission aboard the ISS.
During their 170 days aboard the space station, the crew orbited Earth 2,720 times - about once every 90 minutes - to log some 72 million miles (116 million km) in space, according to NASA.
"Sad to see you go. We wish you Godspeed, safe re-entry and landing and calm seas," a member of the resident ISS crew radioed to the departing astronauts shortly after undocking.
"It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to serve on the space station for the past six months," one of the Freedom astronauts radioed back. "We look forward to seeing you back home as well."
The departing team was designated as "Crew-4," the fourth full-fledged long-duration group of astronauts launched to ISS by SpaceX since the private rocket company founded by Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk began flying NASA personnel in May 2020.
Their exit came a week after their replacement team, Crew-5, arrived aboard the station - a Russian cosmonaut, a Japanese astronaut and two NASA crewmates, including the first Native American woman sent to orbit.
Crew-5 is remaining on ISS for now with two other Russians and a third American who shared a Soyuz flight to the ISS in September. One of those cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev, assumed ISS command from Cristoferetti of the European Space Agency before Crew-4's departure.
ISS, spanning the length of a football field, has been continuously occupied since 2000, operated by a U.S.-Russian-led partnership that includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.
