The NASA–SpaceX Demo-2 mission will come to an end Sunday when the spacecraft completes its two-month journey to the International Space Station and back. The two-man SpaceX Crew Dragon is expected to splash down at 2:48 p.m. ET, with the target landing area the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, FL, after Hurricane Isaias’ pending arrival on the east coast of Florida forced changes to a planned landing in the Atlantic to change course.
It will mark the first landing at sea for U.S. astronauts since 1975. Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley have been in space since May 30, when they launched at the helm of the first crewed U.S. mission to orbit on a private spacecraft, part of a Space X-NASA partnership.
NASA TV will host a livestream of the return of Behnken and Hurley from their 63 days in space (that’s about 1,024 orbits around Earth). Coverage begins at about 7:25 a.m. ET/4:25 a,m. PT, which you can also watch here.
In addition, Discovery and Science Channel will provide full coverage of the splashdown at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. ET. The two networks teamed to broadcast the historic launch of the Space X Crew Dragon, with that two-hour live broadcast drawing record ratings for both cable networks.
On Saturday, the Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station at 7:35 p.m. ET after more than two months of docked operations in orbit. The spacecraft, now named Dragon Endeavour, will perform a six-minute departure phasing burn at 1:48 a.m. ET to achieve the proper orbital path for landing.
The mission is the first to send astronauts on American rockets from American soil to the International Space Station since 2011.