The four members of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission climbed on board the Crew Dragon Endeavour on Wednesday and began their return trip to Earth from the International Space Station targeting a splashdown early Friday off the coast of Florida.

NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin closed the hatch and undocked from the ISS at 5:05 p.m.

Dragon departing the @Space_Station after undocking at 5:05 p.m. ET pic.twitter.com/9cENuy5HjV

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 23, 2024

The quartet launched from Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket back on March 4 arriving to the ISS one day later.

By the time they land, they will have spent 236 days in space. They had been docked to the ISS for 232 of those days, which is a record stay for the spacecraft.

SpaceX Crew-8 launches after tense discovery of crack on hatch seal

 

Crew-8 had been preparing to depart since welcoming the Crew-9 mission’s Crew Dragon Freedom to the ISS on Sept. 29, which brought up NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

That duo will stay at the ISS as part of Expedition 72 for another five months with a planned return home next February with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the ISS since June 6 after arriving on Boeing’s Starliner on the Crew Flight Test mission.

Starliner flew back to Earth minus its crew as NASA opted to keep Williams and Wilmore safely on board the ISS after concerns with Starliner’s propulsion system.

Crew-9’s arrival brought the ISS population temporarily up to 11, but with Crew-8’s departure, that now drops back to seven.

“Endeavour, departing, fair winds and flowing seas,” said Williams who became the Expedition 72 commander as part of her extended stay.

“So long Dragon, the circle will never be the same without you,” added Williams.

“Station, Dragon, it’s been an absolute pleasure to serve aboard the space station and stay on the watch. It’s in great hands. Godspeed,” replied Crew-8 commander Dominick as the Dragon maneuvered away from the station.

The spacecraft autonomously undocked from the ISS, performing a series of departure burns to move away from the station, and now will make a series of orbit-lowering maneuvers during a 34-hour trip home targeting a 3:29 a.m. landing Friday.

Their departure had been delayed repeatedly by poor weather conditions off the coast of Florida including Hurricane Milton. SpaceX has eight potential sites in either the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico that could work as the splashdown site for the spacecraft.

The primary target is off of Pensacola with SpaceX’s recovery vessel Megan set to meet the capsule after splashdown, although there are multiple alternatives available.

Endeavour was the first SpaceX Crew Dragon to fly with humans back in 2020 and is the fleet leader with five flights having already completed the Demo-2, Crew-2, Axiom Space Ax-1 and Crew-6 missions, all docking with the ISS.

It’s one of four active Crew Dragon spacecraft that have now flown 15 crewed missions carrying 56 humans through space, including five private missions on top of the 10 flown for NASA so far.

Williams and Wilmore will be the first astronauts to fly on both Starliner and Crew Dragon when they return.