NEW YORK, October 24. /TASS/. The Crew Dragon manned spacecraft carrying the Crew-8 mission that includes Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin successfully undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) to return back to Earth, according to a live stream on NASA’s website.

The spaceship undocked at 5:02 p.m. EDT and is expected to land off the Florida coast on October 25.

The undocking of Crew Dragon was postponed several times due to unfavorable weather conditions. 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.