After nearly six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX’s Crew-4 astronauts will return to Earth aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday, October 12. Read on for all the details on how you can watch an astronaut live broadcast. back home
NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines and Jessica Watkins, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, will undock from the advanced orbiter Wednesday evening ET before falling just over 25 hours then thursday
The space agency said it is monitoring weather conditions within the seven landing zones aimed at the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, with poor forecasts likely to cause a delay in the launch of the crew of the space station. .
If a delay occurs, an additional uncoupling opportunity is available the following day, Thursday 13 October.
How to look
You can watch all the coverage using the embedded video player at the top of this page or by heading to NASA Live, which will carry the same channel.
NASA will begin its live broadcast at 10:05 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 12, with farewell remarks from Crew-4 and a change-of-command ceremony aboard the space station.
Later in the day, the live broadcast will resume at 5 pm ET for coverage of the closure of the hatch separating the spacecraft from the ISS, which will take place at 5:20 pm ET.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the ISS at 7:05 PM ET. The spacecraft will be seen moving very slowly away from the space lab, although note that both Crew Dragon and the ISS are moving through space at more than 17,000 mph (27,360 kph), orbiting approximately 250 miles above the Earth.
On Thursday, the Crew Dragon and Crew-4 astronauts will blast off at a location yet to be confirmed. A recovery crew will then head to the spacecraft by boat and check on the astronauts before transporting them back to Earth, ending a half-year space mission.
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