Astronauts leave ISS after nearly six months in space

STORY: The team - comprising NASA's Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina and Japan's Koichi Wakata - are expected to re-enter the atmosphere on Saturday night at 8.11 p.m. EST (0111GMT, March 12) and splashdown just after 9 p.m. EST (0200GMT) off the coast of Floria, at a landing zone in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico.

The SpaceX mission launched on October 5, taking three of the crew members on their first ever space flight. Flight commander Mann, 45, became the first Native American woman in space while Kikina, 38, is the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on an American spacecraft in 20 years.

Crew-6, their replacements, arrived at the ISS on March 3. That four-member team remains aboard the ISS for another six months.

Three others who travel to the ISS in a Russian Soyuz craft are expected to fly home later this year.