Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the delay of the CRS-32 Dragon undocking due to weather.
A SpaceX cargo Dragon was scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) today (May 22), after about a month docked with the orbital laboratory, but has been delayed due to weather at the spacecraft's landing site.
"NASA and SpaceX are standing down from Thursday’s undocking opportunity of Dragon, filled with science, from the International Space Station. Mission teams will continue to review weather conditions off the coast of California, which currently are not favorable for splashdown operations," NASA said in an update.
The next available undocking opportunity for Dragon will be Friday, May 23, with a weather review planned for noon Thursday. When the time comes, NASA will livestream the undocking on its NASA+ streaming platform. You can also watch the action in the window above via Sen's 4k 24/7 high-definition cameras, which are mounted on the station's exterior.
Once undocking commences, Dragon will maneuver a safe distance away from the ISS, to begin a series of deorbit burns to place the spacecraft on a return trajectory for a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean the next day. No livestream of the splashdown will be available, but NASA is expected to provide updates on the agency's ISS blog.
The splashdown will bring an end to a mission known as CRS-32 — SpaceX's 32nd mission for NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program.
CRS-32 launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 21. The spacecraft docked with the zenith port of the station's Harmony module a day later, delivering around 6,700 pounds (3,040 kilograms) of food, equipment and scientific experiments to the station.
Dragon will carry cargo back down to Earth as well. Exterior materials samples from NASA's Multipurpose International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-20) have been stowed inside the CRS-32 capsule, as have an Astrobee robot, the REACCH (Responsive Engaging Arms for Captive Care and Handling) technology demonstration and other experiments. The spacecraft will also be packed with a number of other rotational items from the ISS stores, as well as non-recyclables marked for disposal.
Dragon is currently the only operational cargo vehicle capable of such two-way deliveries. The others — Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft and Russia's Progress vehicle — are designed to burn up during their reentry through Earth's atmosphere.
Boeing's astronaut-carrying Starliner spacecraft is also capable of storing cargo within its crew cabin, but issues with the spacecraft during its crew flight test last summer have delayed its qualification to enter into the space station's official fleet.
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