SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ‘Freedom’ spacecraft is in process of descent to Earth.
The splashdown is expected at 5:57 p.m. EDT.
This is a very special return flight for NASA, SpaceX and to all America, after astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had to stay in the International Space Station for 9 months – instead of the 8 days they were supposed to stay during the maiden crewed mission with troubled Boeing’s Starliner.
The Joe Biden administration pushed back the return of the two veteran astronauts, and it took President Donald J. Trump tasking SpaceX’s Elon Musk to bring them back ‘as soon as possible’, and also pressuring NASA to advance some of their deadlines.
And now, Wilmore and Williams are coming home, together with astronaut NASA Nick Hague and Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Later, at 7:30 p.m. EDT, there will be a ‘Return-to-Earth media conference’ on NASA+, with the participation of Joel Montalbano, from NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Steve Stich, from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Bill Spetch, from NASA’s International Space Station Program and Sarah Walker, from SpaceX’s Dragon Mission Management.
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