Space Station

Four astronauts closed out a nearly six-month expedition on the International Space Station with an undocking early Thursday on SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft, heading for splashdown about 24 hours later off the coast of Florida. Departure from the station occurred at 1:20 a.m. EDT (0520 GMT) Thursday, and the crew splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico at 12:43 a.m. EDT (0443 GMT) Friday.

Three Americans and one Italian astronaut floated into the International Space Station late Wednesday after a nearly 16-hour commute aboard a SpaceX crew capsule from a launch pad in Florida, ready for a multi-month expedition performing experiments, maintenance, and upgrades.

A SpaceX crew capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Georgia Monday with a retired NASA astronaut and three wealthy businessmen, closing out an extended 17-day mission on the first fully commercial, non-government visit to the International Space Station.

After a nearly a week’s worth of mission extensions due to scheduling and weather factors, Axiom’s all-private crew undocked from the International Space Station at 9:10 p.m. EDT Sunday (0110 GMT Monday), heading for re-entry and a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT) Monday.

With persistent high winds off the Florida coast, SpaceX on Saturday again waved off the undocking and return to Earth of a Dragon crew capsule from the International Space Station with four private astronauts. The decision delays the Axiom crew’s departure until no earlier than Sunday night, with splashdown Monday afternoon.