NASA astronauts and cosmonaut Gorbunov will undock from the ISS on March 18
The undocking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft with American astronauts and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov from the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for March 18, NASA said.
“NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are wrapping up a lengthy scientific expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory and will return urgent research results to Earth.” NASA and SpaceX met Sunday to assess weather and landing conditions off the Florida coast for the Crew-9 mission’s return from the International Space Station. Mission managers are planning an earlier return of Crew-9 given favorable conditions forecast for Tuesday evening, March 18,” according to a statement on NASA’s website.
It is noted that undocking is scheduled for Tuesday 01.05 on the time of the East Coast of the United States, the reentry – at 17.57.
Created by Boeing under contract with NASA Starliner went on the first manned flight with NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams on June 5, 2024. The test mission was planned to last about a week, but due to problems discovered during docking with the station in the ship’s engine and subsequent helium leak, the test was delayed. Specialists were unable to fix the identified problems and it was decided that Starliner would return to Earth without a crew. Wilmore and Williams remained on the ISS.
Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the ISS on March 16, with Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov as a crew member. This ship is to pick up the American astronauts of the Starliner mission, who have been on the station for nine months.