SpaceX spacecraft carrying crew to splash down with sonic boom off San Diego coast
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 7:15 a.m. Monday, carrying Ax-4 astronauts Peggy Whitson, Shubhandshu Shukla, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, and Tibor Kapu.
SpaceX launch seen from San Diego area
The crew will return to Earth at 2:31 a.m. PT on Tuesday, which will be streamed live on X @SpaceX.
After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the International Space Station, SpaceX says Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth's atmosphere before splashing down off the coast of California 22.5 hours later.
SpaceX spacecraft splashes down off coast of Oceanside
SpaceX Monday evening on X said Dragon and the Ax-4 crew are on track to reenter Earth's atmosphere and splash down off the coast of southern San Diego County at 2:31 a.m. PT Tuesday.
The spacecraft is expected to create a sonic boom just before it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.
The Ax-4 crew had been onboard the ISS since Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, June 25.
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