Four astronauts in orbit since spring take a ride on a SpaceX rocket to return to earth

 Four astronauts in orbit on account that spring are headed returned to Earth, aiming for a splashdown off the Florida coast.

The undocking in their SpaceX pill from the International Space Station additionally paved the manner for a release of their four replacements as early as Wednesday night.

The beginners have been scheduled to launch first, however NASA switched the order because of awful climate and an astronaut's undisclosed scientific circumstance. The welcoming duties will now fall to the lone American and two Russians left in the back of at the gap station.

NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and France's Thomas Pesquet have to were again Monday morning, but high wind in the recovery quarter delayed their homecoming. Their late night time splashdown became deliberate for the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola.

"One extra night time with this magical view. Who may want to bitch? I'll leave out our spaceship!" Pesquet tweeted along a brief video displaying the gap station illuminated in opposition to the blackness of space and the twinkling city lights at the middle of the night aspect of Earth.

From the space station, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei -- midway via a one-year flight -- bid farewell to each of his departing pals, telling McArthur "I'll omit hearing your laughter in adjoining modules."

Before leaving the neighbourhood, the 4 took a spin around the distance station to take pix. This turned into the primary time SpaceX tried a flyaround like this; NASA's shuttles used to do it all of the time earlier than their retirement a decade ago.

It wasn't the maximum secure experience again. The bathroom of their capsule was damaged, and so the astronauts had to rely on diapers for the eight-hour trip home. They shrugged it off late last week as just one more undertaking in their assignment.

The first difficulty arose shortly after their April liftoff; Mission Control warned a piece of space junk become threatening to collide with their pill. It turned out to be a false alarm. Then in July, thrusters on a newly arrived Russian lab inadvertently fired and despatched the station into a spin. The 4 astronauts took shelter in their docked SpaceX tablet, ready to make a hasty departure if necessary.

Among the upbeat milestones: 4 spacewalks to enhance the station's sun strength, a film-making go to by means of a Russian film group and the primary-ever area harvest of chile peppers. Their 2 hundred-day task commenced remaining April.