Four-Astronaut Team Departs International Space Station on Flight Back to Earth

NASA's Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer, a German with the European Space Agency (ESA), arrive prior to their voyage to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, October 26, 2021. (Reuters)

The third long-duration team of astronauts launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA safely departed the orbiting outpost early on Thursday to begin their descent back to Earth, capping a six-month science mission.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying three US NASA astronauts and a German astronaut from the European Space Agency undocked from the ISS at 1:20 a.m. EDT (0520 GMT) to embark on a return flight expected to last about 23 hours.