The two NASA astronauts who rode to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's new Crew Drago are due to return on Sunday after a nearly four-month voyage that marked NASA's first crewed mission from home soil in nine years. U.S. astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who launched to the space station in May, are expected to board Crew Dragon around 5:30 p.m. ET and splash down at one of seven landing sites in the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean at about 2:48 p.m. ET on Sunday.
FILE PHOTO: NASA astronaut Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley arrive at the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule in this still image taken from video May 31, 2020. NASA/Handout via REUTERS
NASA and SpaceX are monitoring the path of Hurricane Isaias, a category 1 cyclone approaching Florida’s east coast that could force officials to postpone the homecoming into next week. Stich said Crew Dragon, an acorn-shaped pod that can seat up to seven astronauts, has been in a “very healthy” condition since docking on May 31 to the space station, where astronauts have been conducting tests and monitoring how the spacecraft performs over time in space.
“The water landing portion of it is pretty challenging from a physiological standpoint, just after coming back from being in microgravity,” Hurley, a veteran of two shuttle missions, told reporters in a phone briefing on Friday.
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