High winds in Gulf of Mexico prompt delay for Crew Dragon return to Earth

Four astronauts wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month stay aboard the International Space Station are delaying their return to Earth, from Wednesday to Saturday, because of predicted high winds in the Gulf of Mexico splashdown zone, NASA announced late Monday.

Crew Dragon commander Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who launched last November 15 in the first operational flight of a SpaceX ferry ship — Crew-1 — now plan to undock from the lab on Friday at 5:55 p.m. ET. That will set up a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle coast around 11:36 a.m. Saturday. Before departing, Walker, the current space station commander, plans to turn the lab over to Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, who arrived at the outpost Saturday aboard another Crew Dragon, along with Crew-2 astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur and European Space Agency flier Thomas Pesquet.