A | Two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates astronaut undocked from the International Space Station Sunday and headed for an overnight splashdown off Florida's East Coast early Monday to wrap up a six-month stay in orbit.Strapped into their SpaceX Crew Dragon "Endeavour" spacecraft, Crew-6 commander Stephen Bowen, pilot Woody Hoburg, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and UAE crewmate Sultan Alneyadi undocked from the station's forward Harmony module at 7:05 a.m. ET to kick off a 17-hour flight back to Earth.Crew-6 (clockwise from top): Pilot Woody Hoburg, cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, commander Stephen Bowen and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi. NASA "Before we get busy, we just want to say wow!" mission control radioed a few minutes before undocking. "Can you believe it's already time to leave? We can't. ... You've done an incredible job, and to say it's been a pleasure to support you guys in this mission would be an understatement." "Thank you very much," Bowen replied. "It's been a real pleasure and an honor to be here for this expedition. We're coming up on 23 years of continuous occupation of the International Space Station, which is absolutely amazing. Just a real privilege to be a part of it."If all goes well, the Crew Dragon will execute a 16-minute de-orbit thruster firing starting at 11:24 p.m. ET. The "burn" will slow the spacecraft by 252 mph, just enough to drop it back into the lower atmosphere on a southwest-to-northeast trajectory.
Splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean east of Jacksonville, Florida, is expected at 12:17 a.m. ET Monday."We're definitely looking forward to our return, and for me as a rookie flyer, the final part of that unique life experience (of) decelerating from 17,500 miles an hour down to hopefully a great splashdown," Hoburg said last week.A SpaceX team will be standing by to pull the spacecraft aboard a company recovery ship and assist the crew members getting out of the cabin as they begin readjusting to the unfamiliar tug of gravity after a half year in weightlessness.Before departing the space station, Bowen, a former submariner, said he most looked forward to "the nice ocean air and peaceful calm seas. That'll be really nice to get back to."
Hoburg said he was looking forward to a "real shower." Alneyadi said he couldn't wait to rejoin friends and family, along with enjoying "a real hot cup of coffee." As for Fedyaev, "I think my dream is a bed for good sleeping. I can lay on one side. Another side. My back. Sleeping!"After initial medical checks aboard the recovery ship, all four fliers will be flown to shore by helicopter. A NASA jet then will carry them back to Houston and the Johnson Space Center for debriefing and reunions with friends and family.Left behind in orbit were three Soyuz crew members -- station commander Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio -- and four Crew Dragon fliers launched August 26 to replace Bowen and company: Crew-7 commander Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, upper left, Soyuz commander Sergey Prokopyev, upper right, and flight engineer Dmitri Petelin will close out an extended yearlong mission when they return to Earth on September 27. Rubio will set a new record for the longest single flight by an American astronaut. NASA Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio were launched to the station last September and are wrapping up a marathon 371-day mission.They originally planned to spend six months in space, but their Soyuz ferry ship was disabled by a major coolant leak last December. The Russians opted to send up a replacement spacecraft, and the crew's mission was extended an additional six months.A fresh Soyuz crew — commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara — is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept.15.Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio will undock and return to Earth 12 days later. In so doing, Rubio will set a new U.S. record for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut.
Launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 2, the Crew-6 fliers will have spent 185 days and 22 hours off planet, circling the globe 2,976 times while traveling 78.9 million miles through space. At splashdown, Bowen, the only space veteran on the crew, will have logged 227 days in space across four missions.Over the course of their mission, the Crew-6 astronauts welcomed seven visiting vehicles, including two unpiloted Cargo Dragon spacecraft, two Russian Progress supply ships, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo carrier and two piloted Crew Dragons.They also carried out three spacewalks. Bowen and Hoburg ventured outside twice to install new roll-out solar blankets and Alneyadi joined Bowen for a third excursion to retrieve a failed antenna package and to carry out other maintenance."It's certainly been the experience of a lifetime, and a real honor to get to spend six months, six incredibly short-feeling months, living and working aboard this incredible orbiting outpost," Hoburg said before departing the station. "I think we got a lot done."
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of "Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia."
B | AI摘要
国民党徐欣莹与民进党郑朝方竞逐新竹县长，选情胶着。蓝营面临整合初选对手陈见贤及与民众党争夺竹北市长的双重挑战，成败关键在于党内团结与蓝白合作。
C |
如果说台湾年底县市长选举，蓝营在彰化县选情最危险，那么其在新竹县的选情则仍显混沌。不是说国民党新竹县长参选人未定，而是说选将虽然有了，但新竹县蓝营初选裂痕未化解，内部整合仍陷僵局；此外，国民党和民众党还在激烈争夺新竹县竹北市长参选名额，且都不愿妥协，倘若蓝白在新竹县“最大票仓”竹北市闹得不愉快，恐将连带冲击蓝营新竹县选情，甚至可能让民进党“渔翁得利”。
D | 蓝绿新竹县选情拉扯
2026年新竹县长选举，由国民党徐欣莹对决民进党郑朝方，目前两人选情胶着，民调互有领先，差距在缩小。其实，这已经是两人二度交手。2018年徐欣莹第一次对决郑朝方，只不过当时徐欣莹脱离国民党自立门户，代表“民国党”参选，郑朝方首次代表民进党出战。那一年，国民党则派出杨文科角逐，最终杨文科在“三脚督”中得票率38.2%成功当选县长，并于2022年成功连任，得票率63.36%。如今，杨文科即将卸任，施政满意度达58.8%，8年经营颇有成效，巩固了蓝营基本盘、拓展了中间选票渠道，为2026年代表国民党出战的徐欣莹打下坚实基础。 按理说，新竹县基本盘仍是蓝大于绿，这次泛蓝也没分裂，但徐欣莹与郑朝方对决之路并不顺畅，甚至有些踉跄。
E | 此前一份民调显示，民进党郑朝方支持度44.88%，国民党徐欣莹35.5%，双方差距9.38个百分点。而近日另一份民调显示，国民党参选人徐欣莹以41.4%的支持度，领先民进党参选人郑朝方的38.1%。
F | 徐欣莹从落后9.38个百分点，到领先3.3个百分点，并不意味着徐欣莹稳操胜券，而是显示双方仍在激烈拉扯中，且徐欣莹还要面对一些不确定因素。
G | 蓝营面临两大难题
首先，徐欣莹如何尽快“牵手”初选竞争者陈见贤，并获得他的支持。
H | 要知道，初选中徐欣莹民调只是险胜陈见贤1.2%，而且陈见贤参加初选时获得了新竹县现任议长张镇荣、新竹县前县长邱镜淳、竹北市前市长何淦铭及蓝营多名议员的支持，也是地方实力派。
I | 只是，初选中徐欣莹、陈见贤两人杀到刀刀见骨，陈见贤受伤最重，如今要言归于好、携手共守“蓝天”，并非易事。8月22日，虽然徐欣莹、陈见贤同台参加活动，但双方仍零互动，整合曙光何时能降临？
其次，徐欣莹还要面临一个非常棘手的难题，也就是蓝白争夺新竹县“最大票仓”竹北市长人选。按照民众党主席黄国昌的说法，早前蓝白达成的协议是由民众党邱臣远参选竹北市长，他希望国民党和徐欣莹要说到做到。另外，柯文哲参加2024年台湾地区领导人选举时在竹北市得票不低，他也坚持力挺邱臣远参选。还有一点，由于地理位置关系，竹北市与新竹市也互动紧密，而新竹市又大概率将由与民众党关系密切的高虹安成功连任，若邱臣远也能胜选，那么未来民众党地盘将进一步扩大。民众党算盘虽打得响，但国民党也有自己的想法。目前，蓝白各自力推的竹北市长人选民调“相当接近”，不过国民党吴旭智支持度稍微领先民众党邱臣远，蓝营并不想礼让。如果蓝白没有办法在竹北市长人选上达成共识，民众党肯定不满，其支持者“小草”也不会力挺国民党，情况若再恶化，蓝白各自为战，恐将连带影响新竹县选情。 竹北市是“台湾硅谷”新竹科学园的重要落脚地之一，随着大量科技业家庭、新移入人口、年轻中产与跨县市通勤族加入，竹北市已成为台湾人口最年轻的城市，竹北市甚至新竹县的选民结构也发生了一些变化。
