NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev undocked from the space station at 5:35 pm IST on Wednesday, October 7.
Operating the SpaceX Dragon capsule named Freedom, commander Meir and pilot Hathaway successfully unlocked from the Harmony module.
The event officially concluded their 237-day scientific mission in microgravity, where the Crew-12 quartet conducted advanced biotechnology and space biology research.
The departure follows a smooth orbital handover with the newly arrived Crew-13 members, who docked at the ISS just days earlier on October 1.
The station’s population has now scaled back down from eleven to seven remaining residents.
According to flight controllers at NASA, the astronauts are now navigating a 27-hour free-flight transit back into Earth's atmosphere.
Mission management teams are closely monitoring the automated vessel as it tracks toward a targeted splashdown off the coast of California, which is scheduled for 11:34 AM EDT (9:04 PM IST) on Thursday, October 8.