Four astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule Freedom undocked from the International Space Station on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, beginning a 27-hour journey back to Earth after nearly eight months in space. Their return sets up a planned Pacific Ocean splashdown off the coast of California.
The departure of the Crew-12 mission follows an extended stay in orbit that stretched past the original timeline due to a propulsion system issue on their capsule, Grace. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev climbed back into the same vehicle that carried them aloft in February, preparing for a parachute-assisted water landing scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 8, at 11:34 a.m. EDT in the Pacific Ocean near California.
Standing roughly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, the Crew Dragon capsule is capable of carrying up to seven people, though standard rotations feature a crew of four. The spacecraft separated from the forward port on the Harmony module at 8:05 a.m. Eastern Time, setting in motion a transit that covers thousands of miles before re-entry.
Command Handover and Station Life Prior to Undocking
Before closing the hatch on Wednesday morning, the station’s population had temporarily swelled to 11 people following the arrival of the four-person Crew-13 mission on Oct. 1. Crew-13’s launch had been delayed from Sept. 12 due to a propulsion system issue on their capsule, Grace, giving Crew-12 a few extra weeks in orbit.
Remaining on the station after the departure are Crew-13 members commander Jessica Watkins, pilot Luke Delaney, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. Also aboard are Soyuz MS-29 commander Pyotr Dubrov, cosmonaut Anna Kikina, and NASA astronaut Anil Menon, who arrived in mid-July.
During a ceremony on Sunday, mission commander Jessica Meir officially handed over leadership of the laboratory to Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov. Describing the departure as bittersweet, Meir remarked on the close bonds formed during their long-duration stay.
“For those of us on Crew-12, we will be leaving our friends. We’ll be leaving our temporary home that’s been even a little bit longer than we first planned, but we know that we are going home to our friends, to our families, to all of our team members on the ground.”
Jessica Meir, NASA astronaut and former ISS commander
The station crews gathered for what Meir playfully described as a huggle
—a combination between a hug and a huddle—before the official transition, complete with the handover of a symbolic gold key to Dubrov.
Crew-12 Research Supports Future Mars Expeditions
Throughout their time on orbit, the Crew-12 astronauts maintained a heavy schedule of maintenance and scientific investigation. Their research output addressed fundamental questions about human adaptation to spaceflight, generating direct medical precursors for future crewed Mars expeditions planned by NASA.
The crew also supported work involving potential cancer treatments, bone and cartilage growth. Outside the laboratory modules, Meir completed four spacewalks during the mission—adding to three from an earlier stay—making her the woman with the third-highest number of spacewalks behind Peggy Whitson and Sunita Williams.
SpaceX Dragon Executes Autonomous Return to California Coast
The return sequence began when the SpaceX Dragon Freedom autonomously backed away from the space-facing port of the Harmony module. After moving a safe distance from the orbiting complex, the spacecraft is set to execute a nine-minute and 20-second deorbit burn using its forward Draco thrusters. The capsule will then plunge back through Earth’s atmosphere.
Recovery teams positioned off the coast of California will retrieve the capsule from the water following its parachute-assisted splashdown. SpaceX shifted its splashdown operations to the West Coast starting with Crew-10 to avoid safety concerns involving discarded spacecraft hardware landing on populated areas during reentry. Following retrieval, the four returning astronauts will undergo medical evaluations, with Adenot flying onward to the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.