NASA announced the date of the return of astronauts from the ISS on the SpaceX Crew Dragon

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has determined the timing of the return of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley from the ISS on the SpaceX Crew Dragon. As previously reported, this will happen in early August.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft, which astronauts dubbed “Endeavor” (Aspiration), is due to splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean on August 2 at about 3 pm ET (22:00 Moscow time), spokesman for NASA’s Lyndon Johnson Space Center Kyle Herring told CNBC.

Herring noted that the time for Crew Dragon to undock from the ISS is “a slightly variable amount,” although he indicated in an email that the spacecraft is scheduled to be sent around 20:00 ET on August 1 (August 2, 03:00 Moscow time). These dates were also confirmed by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

The successful landing of Crew Dragon will mark the completion of the NASA and SpaceX Demo-2 missions, which began with the launch on May 30 of a spaceship on the Falcon 9 rocket from the 39th launch complex of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Since Demo-2 is considered a test flight, there were only two astronauts aboard the spacecraft. As part of Crew-1, which NASA considers SpaceX’s first commercial mission, there will already be four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. As reported, SpaceX and NASA have already begun pre-start preparations for the second manned spaceflight Crew Dragon.