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Space station crew heads home as replacements settle in for 6-month tour of duty
CBS News • • general
Key Points:
- Four astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) undocked their Crew Dragon capsule "Freedom" early Wednesday, preparing for re-entry and splashdown off Southern California on Thursday after a 237-day mission.
- Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev departed the ISS at 8:05 a.m. ET, completing 3,792 orbits and nearly 101 million miles in space.
- The Crew Dragon will perform a critical thruster firing on Thursday morning to initiate its descent, with splashdown scheduled for 11:34 a.m. ET.
- Command of the ISS was handed over to Soyuz MS-29 commander Pyotr Dubrov, marking a symbolic and emotional transition as Crew 12 prepares to return home.
- Meir's second spaceflight brings her total time in space to 442 days, including multiple spacewalks during this and previous missions, while Adenot also completed three consecutive spacewalks during the mission.
