SpaceX Crew-10 return delayed due to weather at splashdown site
"The spacecraft and Crew-10 crew remain healthy, and teams will continue to monitor weather conditions for the next available undocking opportunity," SpaceX said in a post on X.
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Crew-10 astronauts are preparing to return to Earth on Friday after being onboard the international space station for over 140 days. (Photo credit: NASA/UPI)
Aug. 7 (UPI) -- SpaceX and NASA delayed the return of Crew-10 astronauts to Earth that was originally scheduled to begin on Thursday afternoon.
The Crew-10's Dragon capsule, Endurance, will undock at 6:05 p.m. EDT on Friday for a 17.5-hour journey and is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 11:33 a.m. Saturday.
The crew was initially set to begin its return from ISS on Thursday at 12:05 p.m. EDT but the departure was delayed due to weather in the splashdown area.
"Due to high winds at the splashdown sites off the coast of California, Dragon is standing down from today's undocking from the Space Station," SpaceX said in a post on X. "The spacecraft and Crew-10 crew remain healthy, and teams will continue to monitor weather conditions for the next available undocking opportunity."
SpaceX's recovery ship Shannon will be on site to retrieve the capsule and its crew. Afterwards, the crew will be flown to Houston.
Crew-10, which has been on the ISS for 140 days, will also be the first NASA ISS crewed mission to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
Crew-10's Anne McClain, Nichole Ayer, Takuya Onishi and Kirill Peskov had initially launched on March 14 and docked the ISS two days later.
"Crew-10 has had the absolute privilege of working here for the last four months, and we have so much gratitude for all of the ground teams that showed up every day to make this possible," McClain said during a farewell ceremony on Tuesday on the ISS.
"We truly are very humbled to represent humanity, and we hope that we can be a reminder to others of the goodness of humanity and what we really can accomplish when we work together," she added.
Alongside the Crew-10, Endurance will be carrying home science samples on the Polar portable cold storage facility.
SpaceX's Crew-11 members Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov have docked the ISS on Aug 2.
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