NASA’s Crew-12 astronauts leave space station, head for Thursday splashdown

NASA’s Crew-12 astronauts are on their way back to Earth after departing the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Wednesday morning.Crew begins journey homeNASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev undocked from the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module at 8:05 a.m. EDT.The four crew members are traveling aboard Dragon for their return to Earth, concluding their stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.Following undocking, NASA is providing real-time audio of the mission, including conversations between the astronauts and mission control. The feed also includes live external video from the International Space Station.Splashdown planned off CaliforniaNASA plans to resume full live coverage of Crew-12’s return at 10:20 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 8.Splashdown is scheduled for approximately 11:34 a.m. off the California coast. Recovery teams will then retrieve the spacecraft