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

Solar Sails Could Reach Mars in Just 26 Days

A recent study submitted to Acta Astronautica explores the potential for using aerographite solar sails…

2 hours ago

NASA’s Perseverance Rover is Setting Records on Mars

NASA's Perseverance Rover has been exploring Mars for more than 900 sols. It's the most…

8 hours ago

This 3D Simulation of a Supernova Needed 5 Million Hours of Supercomputing

When the largest stars in the Universe run out of fuel, they detonate as supernovae,…

9 hours ago

We Can't See the First Stars Yet, but We Can See Their Direct Descendants

The first stars in the Universe were enormous, made of primordial hydrogen and helium from…

14 hours ago

Gluttonous Black Holes Eat Faster Than Thought. Does That Explain Quasars?

At the heart of large galaxies like our Milky Way, there resides a supermassive black…

1 day ago

Dark Photons Could Be the Key to Both Dark Matter and the Muon Anomaly.

Dark matter might have its own force, mediated by dark photons similar to the way…

1 day ago