HOUSTON — NASA Television will provide live coverage as three of the crew members on the International Space Station come back to Earth Sunday, Nov. 18.
Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA, Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko will undock their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft from the station, heading for a pre-dawn landing in Kazakhstan, northeast of the remote town of Arkalyk at 7:53 p.m. CST (7:53 a.m. Kazakhstan time on Nov. 19). Their return will wrap up 127 days in space since their launch from Kazakhstan on July 15, including 125 days spent aboard the station.
At the time of undocking, Expedition 34 formally will begin aboard the station under the command of NASA’s Kevin Ford. He and his crewmates, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, will tend to the station as a three-man crew for one month until the arrival of three new crew members in December. They are Tom Marshburn of NASA, Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.
NASA Television landing coverage will begin Saturday, Nov. 17, with the change of command ceremony when Williams will transfer the helm of the orbiting laboratory to Ford. Coverage will continue Nov. 18 and 19 with Expedition 33 landing and post-landing activities.
(All Times Central)
Saturday, Nov. 17:
1:15 p.m. — Expedition 33/34 Change of Command Ceremony
Sunday, Nov. 18:
12:45 p.m. — Farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure scheduled at 1:10 p.m.)
4:00 p.m. — Undocking (undocking scheduled at 4:26 p.m.)
6:30 p.m. — Deorbit burn and landing (deorbit burn scheduled at 6:58 p.m.; landing scheduled at 7:53 p.m.)
9:00 p.m. — Video File of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities
Monday, Nov. 19:
9:00 a.m. — Video File of post-landing activities and interviews
For live streaming of NASA Television and program schedules, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For information on the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
