Three crew members on the International Space Station are scheduled to depart the orbital outpost Saturday, Oct. 29, with coverage of activities beginning the day before on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the space station at 8:37 p.m. EDT Saturday and land in Kazakhstan at 11:59 p.m. (9:59 a.m. Oct. 30, Kazakhstan time).
Their return will wrap up 115 days in space for the crew since their launch in July.
Together, the Expedition 49 crew members pursued hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the orbiting laboratory.
NASA Television will air coverage of the departure and landing activities at the following dates and times:
Friday, Oct. 28:
3:30 p.m. – Change of command ceremony in which Ivanishin hands over station command to NASA’s Shane Kimbrough
Saturday, Oct. 29:
4:45 p.m. – Farewell and hatch closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled at 5:15 p.m.)
8:15 p.m. – Undocking coverage (undocking scheduled at 8:37 p.m.)
10:45 p.m. – Deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled at 11:06 p.m., with landing at 11:59 p.m.)
Sunday, Oct. 30:
2 a.m. – Video File of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities
1 p.m. – Video File of landing and post-landing activities and post-landing interview with Rubins and Onishi in Kazakhstan
At the time of undocking, Expedition 50 will begin aboard the station under the command of NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough. Along with his crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, the three-person crew will operate the station for three weeks until the arrival of three new crew members. Peggy Whitson of NASA, Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) and Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch in November from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Check out the full NASA TV schedule and video streaming information at:
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