Astronauts leave the ISS, begin to return to Earth in the spaceship Space News

The four astronauts spent more than 160 days in space and the Crew Dragon spacecraft is expected to return to Earth on Sunday.

Four astronauts have left the International Space Station in a SpaceX spacecraft, after more than 160 days in space, to land with a ship off the coast of Florida.

The Crew Dragon capsule left the ISS on Saturday at 20:35 as scheduled (00:35 Sunday GMT).

The return flight would take six and a half hours, and the crew would have to splash out on a dark night early Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico, Panama City, Florida.

“The separation of the dragon has been visually confirmed,” a NASA commentator said after pulling back two sets of six hooks that connect the capsule to the ISS.

The capsule then fired a few brief explosions with its propellers to slowly move away from the ISS.

NASA’s live reproduction image showed the Crew Dragon capsule going into the dark as it began its journey back to Earth, with the rear engines illuminated in low brightness.

Seven astronauts remained on the ISS, including a new crew of four who arrived at a different SpaceX spacecraft last week.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” said Michael Hopkins, one of the U.S. astronauts on his way out as he was walking away from the capsule. “We’ll see you on the ground again.”

‘Good moon’

NASA and SpaceX have alternatives, not just Panama City, if need be.

“We’ve been doing crew recovery practices day or night,” said Steve Stich, director of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, before launching the capsule.

“The boats have great lighting,” accompanied by “good moonlight,” he said, adding that the weather conditions are excellent, with calm seas.

SpaceX ships are expected to arrive at the capsule after about 10 minutes.

Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronauts Soichi Noguchi went into space in November, crewing a spacecraft made by Elon Musk in SpaceX on its first operational mission to the ISS, which has become a member of NASA’s commercial transport side.

Previously, two American astronauts had completed a test mission to the ISS in May and had been there for two months.

This was the first launch from the US to the ISS since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. It was also the first mission led by a private company, in front of NASA.

So far, U.S. astronauts have been making trips to the ISS on the Russian spacecraft since the end of the Space Shuttle program.