A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts took off late last night from the International Space Station (MSS) and the private company planned to end its second flight with a rare overnight landing on Earth.
It would be the first dark landing by an American capsule since the Apollo 8 crew returned from the moon in 1968.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan's Soichi Noguchi headed home in the same Dragon capsule that flew to the space station last November. The return trip was expected to take only six and a half hours.
SpaceX was aiming to land around XNUMX a.m. in the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Panama City, Florida, and the Coast Guard set up extra patrols and searchlights because of the darkness.
Hopkins, the spacecraft's commander, was launched into orbit with a crew on Nov. 15 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
The four astronauts should have already returned to Earth, but strong winds kept them on the space station for several days longer.
The MSS liftoff delay allowed Glover to celebrate his 45th birthday in space on Friday.
Seven astronauts remained on the MSS: three Americans, two Russians, a Japanese and a Frenchman.
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