Watch Live As Three People Return From Space Today

It’s time to come home! Expedition 39 astronauts Rick Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata and Mikhail Tyurin will climb into a Russian Soyuz spacecraft later today to make the trip back to Earth from the International Space Station. Much of the activity will play out on NASA TV, which you can watch above. Below are details about when to watch.

These are the descriptions from NASA about when the major events of the day occur. Bear in mind that all of these times are subject to change as circumstances warrant.

3 p.m. EDT / 7 p.m. UTC — Farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure scheduled at 3:15 p.m. / 7:15 p.m. UTC )
6:15 p.m. EDT / 10:15 p.m. UTC — Undocking (undocking scheduled at 6:33 p.m. / 10:33 p.m. UTC)
8:45 p.m. EDT / 12:45 a.m. UTC — Deorbit burn and landing (deorbit burn scheduled at 9:03 p.m. EDT /1:03 a.m. UTC landing scheduled at 9:57 p.m. EDT / 1:57 a.m. UTC)

The crew is expected to land near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. After doing some quick medical checks on site, the crew will be flown out separately to do more detailed testing at their local medical centers.

With Wakata flying home, the station is now under the command of Expedition 40 NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, who will oversee activities there along with Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. The rest of the Expedition 40 crew should fly to station May 28, if all goes to plan.

Elizabeth Howell

Elizabeth Howell is the senior writer at Universe Today. She also works for Space.com, Space Exploration Network, the NASA Lunar Science Institute, NASA Astrobiology Magazine and LiveScience, among others. Career highlights include watching three shuttle launches, and going on a two-week simulated Mars expedition in rural Utah. You can follow her on Twitter @howellspace or contact her at her website.

Recent Posts

Floating LEAVES Could Characterize Venus’s Atmosphere

Venus's atmosphere has drawn a lot of attention lately. In particular, the consistent discovery of…

3 hours ago

Update your Desktop Wallpaper with 25 New Images from Chandra

It’s not always possible to observe the night sky from the surface of the Earth.…

7 hours ago

SpaceX Resumes Falcon 9 Rocket Launches After FAA Go-Ahead

SpaceX is flying again after the Federal Aviation Administration ruled that the company can resume…

9 hours ago

Is This How You Get Hot Jupiters?

When we think of Jupiter-type planets, we usually picture massive cloud-covered worlds orbiting far from…

2 days ago

Now Uranus’ Moon Ariel Might Have an Ocean too

Venus is known for being really quite inhospitable with high surface temperatures and Mars is…

2 days ago

Why is JWST Having So Much Trouble with the TRAPPIST-1 System?

When the James Webb Space Telescope was launched it came with a fanfare expecting amazing…

2 days ago