Undocking of Crew Dragon spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut aboard from ISS now set for Oct 20

WASHINGTON. Oct 18 (Interfax) - The undocking of SpaceX's Crew Dragon-8 spacecraft carrying a crew of three U.S. astronauts and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin from the International Space Station (ISS) back to Earth has now been scheduled for Sunday, October 20, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said.

The undocking will take place at 3:05 a.m. EDT (10:05 a.m. Moscow time) if weather conditions at the site of the spaceship's planned splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico permit.

Apart from Grebenkin, the Crew-8 mission includes NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, who have been on board the station since early March.

The undocking has been postponed five times. It was initially scheduled for October 8 and was later postponed for October 10, 13, 14, and 18 due to a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico area.

Crew Dragon-8 is expected to splash down near Florida's coast in the Gulf of Mexico.