NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 undocks from space station

The astronauts launched in November 2021

SpaceX's Dragon Endurance undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) early Thursday morning to complete a nearly six-month science mission. 

The spacecraft undocked from the forward port of the orbiting laboratory's Harmony module at 1:20 a.m. ET.

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The hatch closed between the Dragon Endurance and the ISS in preparation for unlocking at 11:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

The four commercial crew astronauts representing the SpaceX Crew-3 mission are pictured in their Dragon spacesuits for a fit check aboard the International Space Station’s Harmony module on April 21, 2022. (Credit: NASA)

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission includes NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Tom Marshburn, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer.

Endurance was previously scheduled to undock from the ISS at 1:05 a.m. ET. 

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They are scheduled to splash down off the coast of Florida – at one of seven targeted landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico – at about 12:43 a.m. ET on May 6.

The Crew-3 mission launched on Nov. 10, 2021, on a Falcon 9 rocket from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

The Dragon Endurance spacecraft is shown after the hatch closed between it and the International Space Station in preparation for undocking and return to Earth of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission. (Credit: NASA)

The launch was initially delayed due to a large storm system meandering across the Ohio Valley and through the Northeast.

It docked at the space station on Nov. 11. 

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SpaceX's Crew-2 astronauts safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just a few days earlier aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.