NEW YORK, October 17. /TASS/. The undocking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying the Crew-8 mission that includes Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin was again delayed by weather conditions and is expected no earlier than October 20, NASA said on its website.

"Weather conditions near multiple splashdown zones off the coast of Florida remain unfavorable for the return of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 from the International Space Station. Mission managers continue to monitor conditions as weather is expected to remain unfavorable for several days," the US space agency said in a statement. "The next weather briefing is planned for 11 a.m. EDT, on Friday, Oct. 18. If weather conditions improve, NASA and SpaceX will target no earlier than 3:05 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 20, for undocking from the space station."

The undocking of Crew Dragon, previously scheduled for October 18, has already been postponed several times. Along with Russia’s Grebenkin, Crew-8 includes NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, who have been on a space mission since March 2024.

In July 2022, Roscosmos and NASA signed a seat-swap agreement allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly to the ISS on US spacecraft and US astronauts to travel aboard Russian spaceships. The agreement makes sure that there always is at least one Russian cosmonaut and one NASA astronaut aboard the ISS to serve its Russian and US segments. News came in December 2023 that Roscosmos and NASA planned to continue cross-flights until 2025 inclusive. The head of NASA’s manned spaceflight directorate, Ken Bowersox, told TASS that the Russian and US space agencies are working to extend their seat swap program.