View of the capsule as it prepares to undock (NASA)
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The longest single space mission was undertaken by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent 371 days in orbit due to a coolant leak on his Soyuz spacecraft.
Behind him, Mark Vande Hei spent 355 days in space, followed by Scott Kelly with 340 days, Christina Koch with 328 days, Peggy Whitson with 289 days and Andrew Morgan with 272 days.
The illuminated underbelly of the International Space Station, as seen from the SpaceX Dragon shuttle while docking on Sunday. (AP / NASA)
Dragon's hatch door was due to close at 1:20pm AEST. That happened about 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and will be followed by an automated undocking from the ISS at about 3:05pm AEST.
Those moments will be followed minutes later by Departure Burns 0 and 1 — which are short bursts of propulsion to get the shuttle away from the ISS and into a circular orbit of Earth.
The next steps are called Phasing Burns, which SpaceX says are "orbit-lowering manoeuvres" to help line up the shuttle with its desired landing location and get it into the right orbit around Earth.
By 7:06am AEST Wednesday, the Dragon shuttle is expected to jettison its trunk to reduce the spacecraft's weight prior to deborbiting.
Minutes later, Dragon will begin to deborbit and re-enter Earth's atmosphere with another planned burn that should last up to 12 minutes. During this time, the shuttle will experience "significant heating and drag" and also close its top nose cone hatch, SpaceX says.
By about 7:53am AEST Wednesday, Dragon's "drogue parachutes" will deploy at about 18,000 feet (5,486 metres) from Earth's surface, followed by a deployment of the spacecraft's main parachutes at about 6,500 feet (1,981m).
Dragon's planned splashdown time is expected to be 7:57am AEST Wednesday at a speed of about 25 feet (7.62m) per second off the coast of Florida.
