New Delhi: NASA and SpaceX have finally undocked the Crew 8 Dragon from the International Space Station. The spaceship was supposed to depart from the International Space Station on 10 October, but was repeatedly delayed because of unfavourable weather conditions in the multiple splashdown zones off the coast of Florida, in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. On board are NASA astronauts Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. The spaceship undocked from the forward-facing port of the Harmony module, and is expected to splashdown tomorrow at mid-day.
The Crew 8 Dragon has executed a series of departure burns after undocking from the International Space Station, and will now be gradually lowering its altitude through a series of manoeuvres. Before reentering the atmosphere, the Crew Module will jettison the Service Module, or the trunk of the spaceship, that will not be surviving the reentry through the atmosphere of the Earth. NASA will be providing live coverage of the deorbit, reentry and splashdown. With the splashdown, the crew members will have completed a standard six month rotation on the International Space Station.
Crew 8 Dragon mission
The Crew 8 Dragon docked with the International Space Station on 04 March, 2024. The Dragon spaceship ferries four passengers at a time over a standard mission, but can potentially carry six passengers as well, a contingency that NASA has prepared for but never actually used. The Crew 8 Dragon was briefly configured to carry six passengers when it served as the lifeboat for NASA Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, the Pilot and Commander of the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test. The spaceship was reconfigured for a crew of four after the docking of the Crew 9 Dragon to the International Space Station on 30 September. Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have completely moved to the Crew 9 Dragon now, and will be returning in February next year.
