Arrival on Earth slightly shifted. Thomas Pesquet was expected in Miami, on our planet, this Monday. Frenchman Thomas Pesquet and the three other members of the Crew-2 crew were due to leave the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, and land off Florida on Monday at 12:14 p.m. (2:14 p.m. in Paris), after spending more than six months in space.
But their departure was delayed by several hours and will finally take place at dawn on Tuesday, NASA announced on Sunday, due to “strong winds near the landing zone”.
Strong winds delay his return to Earth
The Crew 2 mission will leave the International Space Station on Monday for a landing off Florida on Tuesday. The water landing is scheduled for 3:33 a.m. on November 9, NASA said on its Twitter account. The crew of Crew-2, composed of Thomas Pesquet, the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide and the Americans Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, will return to Earth before the arrival on board the ISS of the four astronauts of Crew-3, whose take-off has been delayed several times mainly because of the weather.
The 43-year-old French astronaut is completing the second mission of his career in orbit, “Alpha”. He arrived aboard the ISS with his teammates on April 24. During his previous “Proxima” mission, in 2016-2017, he landed in the Kazakh steppes. The landing will therefore be a first for him.