After spending almost three months in space, three american astronauts and a German began the journey back to Earth aboard a capsule of SpaceXwhose splashdown off the coast of Florida is scheduled for Thursday night.
The dragon capsule separated from the International Space Station (ISS) at 05:20 GMT on Thursday.
The Americans Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn, as well as the astronaut of the European Space Agency (THAT) Matthias MaurerThey will spend a total of almost 24 hours in the space capsule before splashing down at 04:43 GMT on Friday.
The vertiginous descent will be stopped by entering the Earth’s atmosphere and then later by the deployment of huge parachutes. The capsule will later be rescued by a boat belonging to the company Elon Musk. Once on board, the hatch will open for the astronauts to exit.
The crew, named Crew-3, spent the last few days aboard the ISS carrying out transfer operations with Crew-4, also made up of four astronauts (three Americans and one Italian). The new crew took off from Florida a week ago, also on board a ship of SpaceX.
Three Russian cosmonauts also remain on the ISS, arriving for their part on a Soyuz rocket.
It will be the sixth landing of a dragon capsule manned by SpaceXwhich regularly transports astronauts to the ISS for NASA.
The members of Crew-3 performed various scientific experiments. They studied, for example, how cement hardens in the absence of gravity, something that could be very useful for future construction, for example on the Moon.
They also carried out the second harvest of peppers on board the station.
During their stay, they also received a visit from a private mission, made up of three businessmen who paid SpaceX tens of millions of dollars for the trip and stay on the ISS.