NASA will provide live coverage of the upcoming return activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission. The mission will depart from the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Tom Marshburn, as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting 12:43 a.m. EDT on Friday, May 6, for the splashdown and conclusion of the Crew-3 flight, wrapping up a nearly six-month science mission. The spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the space station to begin the journey home at 1:05 a.m. on Thursday, May 5.
The return and related activities will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
In advance of the return of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, the Crew-3 astronauts will share farewell remarks, and station commander Tom Marshburn of NASA will hand over command of the station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev.
The Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance by crew, will autonomously undock, depart the space station, and splash down at one of seven targeted landing zones in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. Endurance also will return important and time-sensitive research to Earth.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 return coverage is as follows (all times are Eastern):
Wednesday, May 4
2:35 p.m. – Crew-3 farewell remarks and change of command ceremony aboard the space station
11 p.m. – Hatch closure coverage begins for 11:20 p.m. hatch closing
Thursday, May 5
12:45 a.m. – Coverage begins for the 1:05 a.m. undocking. NASA will have continuous coverage from undocking to splashdown
11:53 p.m. – Deorbit burn
Friday, May 6
12:43 a.m. – Splashdown off the coast of Florida
2:30 a.m. – Return to Earth media teleconference call from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston with:
- Kathryn Lueders, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
- Joel Montalbano, manager, International Space Station, NASA Johnson
- William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX
- Frank De Winne, manager, International Space Station Program at ESA
