Watch SpaceX Crew-4 mission depart space station on today (Oct. 13) - Space.com

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Update for Oct. 13: SpaceX's Crew-4 Dragon capsule Freedom is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station contiguous astatine 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT) aft a one-day hold owed to upwind connected Earth. The capsule and its four-astronaut unit volition splash down disconnected the Florida seashore 5:41 p.m. EDT (2141 GMT). Watch it unrecorded above.

SpaceX's Crew-4 ngo volition permission the International Space Station (ISS) connected Thursday greeting (Oct. 13), and you tin ticker the enactment live.

Crew-4's Dragon capsule, named Freedom, is scheduled to undock from the orbiting laboratory Thursday astatine 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT), NASA officials said successful a blog post (opens successful caller tab) Wednesday (Oct. 13). This is simply a hold from Wednesday evening owed to weather.

You tin ticker it unrecorded present astatine Space.com, courtesy of NASA, oregon directly via the abstraction agency (opens successful caller tab). NASA warns the departure clip is somewhat iffy.

"Mission teams proceed to show a acold beforehand passing implicit Florida with the imaginable to bring precocious winds and rainy upwind adjacent the splashdown zones disconnected the Atlantic and Gulf coasts," bureau officials stated successful the blog post. "Mission teams volition proceed to show splashdown and betterment conditions, with different upwind reappraisal astir six hours anterior to undocking."

You tin besides drawback a assortment of different departure-related events Thursday, arsenic we outline below.

The enactment began comparatively aboriginal connected Wednesday. At 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT), the 4 Crew-4 astronauts gave immoderate farewell remarks. And 1 of them — European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the existent ISS commandant — handed the reins of the orbiting laboratory implicit to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev during a change-of-command ceremony astir that aforesaid time.

Undocking is expected for Thursday astatine 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT) with sum apt starting astir 20 minutes earlier the event. This is simply a hold from a Wednesday evening undocking astatine 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT).

Should undocking proceed connected schedule, Freedom is expected to splash down disconnected the Florida seashore connected Thursday at 5:41 p.m. EDT (2141 GMT). NASA and SpaceX program to clasp a post-splashdown property league that time astatine 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT).

That briefing volition diagnostic Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program; Joel Montalbano, NASA's International Space Station programme manager; and a SpaceX representative.

None of these times are acceptable successful stone, however; they're babelike connected bully expected upwind successful Freedom's imaginable splashdown zones successful the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

"Crew-4's Dragon undocking depends connected a assortment of factors, including spacecraft readiness, betterment squad readiness, weather, oversea states, and other factors," NASA officials wrote successful the Wednesday blog post. "Dragon Freedom remains steadfast portion presently docked to the abstraction station. Back-up undocking opportunities besides are disposable Friday, Oct. 14."

Crew-4 launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket connected April 27 and arrived astatine the ISS that aforesaid day. The ngo consists of Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins.

As its sanction suggests, Crew-4 is the 4th contracted astronaut ngo that SpaceX has flown to the orbiting laboratory for NASA. It's 1 of 2 SpaceX flights presently astatine the ISS; Crew-5 arrived connected Oct. 6 for a five-month stay.

This communicative was updated astatine 3:40 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 12 with quality of the undocking hold and the updated undocking opportunities.

Mike Wall is the writer of "Out There (opens successful caller tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a publication astir the hunt for alien life. Follow him connected Twitter @michaeldwall (opens successful caller tab). Follow america connected Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens successful caller tab) or on Facebook (opens successful caller tab).

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Michael Wall is simply a Senior Space Writer with Space.com (opens successful caller tab) and joined the squad successful 2010. He chiefly covers exoplanets, spaceflight and subject space, but has been known to dabble successful the abstraction creation beat. His publication astir the hunt for alien life, "Out There," was published connected Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a subject writer, Michael worked arsenic a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. successful evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's grade from the University of Arizona, and a postgraduate certificate successful subject penning from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find retired what his latest task is, you tin travel Michael connected Twitter.

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