Heading Home After a Record-Length Mission

The four astronauts comprising the SpaceX Crew-12 mission have officially begun their journey back to Earth following a stay of nearly 10 months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The Crew Dragon capsule, known as "Freedom," successfully undocked from the orbiting laboratory on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 8:05 a.m. EDT (1205 GMT). If mission parameters remain on schedule, the spacecraft is set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 11:34 a.m. EDT (1534 GMT).


Details on the Splashdown and Post-Flight Briefing

NASA will provide coverage of the return journey, commencing at 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 GMT) on Thursday. Following the deorbit burn at approximately 10:46 a.m. EDT (1446 GMT), the capsule is expected to hit the water at 11:34 a.m. EDT.

Later that day, at 1:15 p.m. EDT (1715 GMT), NASA and SpaceX officials are scheduled to hold a press conference. The discussion will cover the safe return of the Crew-12 team and look ahead to the upcoming launch of the robotic CRS-35 cargo mission to the ISS, currently slated for Oct. 13.


The Crew and Their Tenure

The returning quartet consists of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. For Meir and Fedyaev, this mission marked their second trip to space, while it served as the inaugural spaceflight for Hathaway and Adenot.

Launched on Feb. 13, the crew bolstered the station's population following the earlier-than-planned return of the Crew-11 mission. Crew-12 was recently succeeded by the four-member Crew-13 team, which arrived at the ISS on Oct. 1, setting a record for the fastest transit to the station by an American spacecraft at just under eight hours.


Scientific Contributions and Spacewalks

Throughout their 10-month tenure, the Crew-12 astronauts maintained a rigorous schedule of scientific experiments and station maintenance. Significant highlights included multiple spacewalks:

  • Jessica Meir completed four spacewalks, bringing her career total to seven.
  • Sophie Adenot made history on Aug. 18 as the first French woman to perform a spacewalk.
  • Adenot conducted two additional spacewalks, including a joint effort with Meir, marking only the sixth all-female extravehicular activity in the station's history.

Reflections on Returning to Earth

As the mission draws to a close, the astronauts have shared their mixed feelings about leaving their orbital home. Reflecting on the experience during a recent press call, Jessica Meir expressed the bittersweet nature of the transition:

«What I'm looking forward to most is seeing my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter. I'm so looking forward to seeing nature again, feeling the breeze on my face, the wind rustling through the leaves, experiencing all those things that we don't have up here. But I will very, very much miss being weightless all the time and the incredible views that we have.»