The hatch between the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the International Space Station closed at 6:05 a.m. EDT, NASA reported on Oct. 7, 2026, marking the start of return operations for NASA's SpaceX Crew-12.

According to the agency, the spacecraft is scheduled to undock autonomously from the orbiting laboratory at about 8:05 a.m. to begin its journey back to Earth. NASA planned undocking coverage from 7:45 a.m. across multiple platforms, with audio-only discussions between Crew-12, the station and flight controllers after that coverage ends.

NASA said live return coverage was set to resume at 10:20 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, and continue through splashdown. The blog post included a photo caption identifying ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev inside the Dragon spacecraft as they prepared to undock.