Four long-duration crew members aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship successfully undocked from the International Space Station after a 199-day mission. The crew members, including NASA commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese flier Satoshi Furukawa, and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, bid farewell to the station as they sailed above the Pacific Ocean. The Crew Dragon was expected to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico early Tuesday morning.
During their mission, the crew completed 3,184 orbits and traveled 84.4 million miles. They also conducted a spacewalk last November. Crew 7’s replacements, Crew 8, were launched briefly boosting the lab crew to 11 before Crew 7’s departure. Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko is now the record holder for most cumulative time spent in space over his four missions, surpassing the previous record holder earlier this year.
Upcoming missions at the International Space Station will see a fresh Soyuz spacecraft arriving later this month to continue the work of crew members. Expedition 71 has commenced following a change-of-command ceremony upon the departure of Expedition 70 members. The work and research conducted on the station continues to benefit humanity and advance our understanding of space. Stay tuned for more updates on space exploration on Poh Diaries.
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