SpaceX Craft Departs ISS For Earth

Washington, Aug 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Aug, 2020 ) :The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft shoved off from the International Space Station on Saturday with two US astronauts on board, beginning their journey back to Earth despite a storm threatening Florida.

NASA footage showed the capsule drifting slowly away from the ISS in the darkness of space, ending a two month stay for the first US astronauts to reach the orbiting lab on an American spacecraft in nearly a decade.

"And they are off!" the US space agency tweeted, with Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken set to splash down Sunday.

"(They) will spend one more night in space prior to returning to their homeland, Earth," NASA tweeted.

Their proposed splash-down sites are off the coast of western Florida's panhandle, while tropical storm Isaias is headed toward the state's east coast.

NASA opted to go ahead with bringing the pair home despite the threat of Isaias, which was downgraded to a tropical storm from a hurricane on Saturday.

The agency later added the capsule was confirmed to be "on a safe trajectory.""Now is the entry, descent and splashdown phase after we undock, hopefully a little bit later today," Hurley said in a farewell ceremony aboard the ISS that was broadcast on NASA tv.