After a slightly extended stay on board the International Space Station, four astronauts from four international space agencies climbed aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance and began their return trip to Earth.

Crew-7 is made up of NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.

The quartet that launched from Kennedy Space Center back on Aug. 26, 2023 arrived to the ISS one day later to begin their 197-day stay, the second longest among the now eight completed SpaceX Crew Dragon trips so far to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Only Crew-2 in 2021 bested their stay, and by just one day.

They departed the station at 11:20 a.m. EDT and now have a more than 18-hour ride home. Depending on the weather, they are slated to splash down at one of seven target locations off the coast of Florida in either the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday around 5:50 a.m. EDT with live coverage beginning on NASA TV at 4:30 a.m.

SpaceX sent up another batch of Starlink satellites on Sunday night from the Space Coast while prepping for the return of Crew-7 from the International Space Station and the potential third test flight of the Starship and Super Heavy.

A Falcon 9 carrying 23 of SpaceX's internet satellites for its growing constellation lifted off at 7:05 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40.

The first-stage booster flew for the 11th time with a recovery landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions downrange in the Atlantic.

SpaceX said the fairings for the mission were used only 25 days ago when they launched on the USSF-124 mission, and this marks the fastest turnaround for fairing reusability,.

This was the 16th launch from the Space Coast in 2024, but the beginning of a busy week for SpaceX as it's set to launch more Starlink satellites from California a few hours later on Sunday night, more from Cape Canaveral as early as Wednesday and support the return of the Crew Dragon Endurance from the International Space Station with its four passengers on the Crew-7 mission.

The value of publicly traded Astra Space has been falling since it shelved a rocket design that only went for 2 for 7 on launches, including two highly visible failures from the Space Coast. Now the company is going private.

Once valued at more than $2.1 billion, the Alameda, California-based company closed at about $20 a share on the Nasdaq Stock Market in February 2021, months before its first orbital success with its Rocket 3 design. It has since made a steady drop in value. including the threat of delisting from Nasdaq last year and the potential for bankruptcy looming.

The deal announced Thursday calls for a group that includes company cofounder and CEO Chris Kemp and cofounder and CTO Adam London to buy back company shares for $0.50 per share. The stock was trading at $0.55 on Friday morning. The closing price was $0.86 per share on Wednesday.

The takeover transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024.

The company managed to reach orbit in November 2021 during a demonstration flight for the Space Force from Alaska and that led to its first launch attempt from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in March 2022.