SpaceX Crew-8's Big Day: Splashdown After Storm Delays

After a rough couple of weeks due to Hurricane Milton, SpaceX's Crew-8 is finally coming home. Their Dragon spacecraft, named Endeavour, will splash down off Florida's coast early Friday morning. The crew, including NASA astronauts Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, left the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday. They've been living and working in space for over 230 days. The journey home isn't easy. Endeavour needs to perform special burns to leave the ISS and lower its orbit. It'll take more than 34 hours before it reenters Earth's atmosphere and splashes down. NASA will livestream the event, so you can watch it all happen.

Originally, the crew was supposed to return in August, but delays kept pushing their homecoming. Boeing's Starliner had some issues that needed fixing first. Then, Hurricane Milton caused more delays. NASA's Kennedy Space Center even closed due to the storm. Despite all the setbacks, Crew-8 is almost home. The splashdown is set for around 3:30 a. m. ET on Friday. NASA will cover the event starting at 2:15 a. m. ET. There's also a news conference planned for later that morning.

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