WASHINGTON – The four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 have been given the “Go” for undocking from the International Space Station on Wednesday, according to the space agency.
NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov have reportedly been spending the days leading up by packing, reviewing return-to-Earth procedures and taking care of other hardware tasks.
The undocking from the space station is scheduled at 5:05 p.m. EST Wednesday. Splashdown off the California coast is expected at 3:41 a.m. Thursday, according to SpaceX.
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Crew-11 launched in August from Florida’s Space Coast and was supposed to last until mid-February. A medical situation on board the space station forced NASA to consider ending the mission early and, eventually, to make the cut official.
The matter involved a single crew member who was not identified and was stable at last mention, according to NASA’s statements.
Only three people will be left on the space station once the SpaceX crew Dragon spacecraft leaves. Past that point, Expedition 74 will be commanded by Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov leading Flight Engineers Sergei Mikaev and NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams, NASA’s blog states.
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