SpaceX Crew-8 leaves the International Space Station to begin its journey back to Earth

On October 23, four members of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission boarded the Crew Dragon Endeavour and successfully separated from the International Space Station (ISS) to begin a 34-hour journey back to Earth.

The return trip comes after delays due to bad weather, scheduling conflicts and more than seven months in space.

Three NASA astronauts, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, along with Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) astronaut Aleksandr Grebenkin, are expected to land off the coast of Florida early on October 25.

Watch video of the four members of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission returning to Earth aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. (Source: NASA/Reuters).

SpaceX Crew-8 was originally launched to the ISS on March 4 and successfully docked after more than 24 hours.

Their return was delayed several times due to severe weather, including hurricanes Helene and Milton, which made conditions near Florida unsafe for an ocean landing.

There are also scheduling conflicts due to problems with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft was scheduled to return astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth after a mission originally planned to last just a week, but a subsequent malfunction forced them to stay on the ISS longer than expected.

The Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft also had to be reconfigured to provide temporary seating for astronauts Wilmore and Williams in case of an emergency evacuation.

With conditions finally deemed safe, the SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts boarded the Crew Dragon Endeavour to conclude their nearly eight-month mission.

Meanwhile, astronauts Wilmore and Williams are now expected to return in 2025 with Crew-9.