HOUSTON — NASA Television will air the landing of the Expedition 18 crew and a visiting spaceflight participant on Wednesday, April 8. Russian managers on Friday postponed the Soyuz landing one day and switched to a more southerly landing site in Kazakhstan because of soggy conditions at the original site.
Expedition 18 Commander E. Michael Fincke, Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Yury Lonchakov and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi will return to Earth at 2:15 a.m. CDT, which is 1:15 p.m. local time in Kazakhstan. The landing will take place near the town of Dzhezkazgan, which is west of Karaganda and southeast of the usual landing zone near Arkalyk. Fincke and Lonchakov have been aboard the orbiting laboratory since October 2008 and will land in the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft that carried them into orbit.
Upcoming NASA TV Soyuz landing programming events (all times CDT):
April 7, Tuesday
7:30 p.m. — Coverage of the crew’s farewell and hatch closure
10:30 p.m. — Coverage of the undocking of Soyuz TMA-13 from the International Space Station
April 8, Wednesday
1 a.m. — Coverage of the deorbit burn and landing of Soyuz TMA-13 (deorbit burn at 1:24 a.m.; landing at 2:15 a.m.)
12:30 p.m. – Video File feed of landing site activities and the crew’s welcoming ceremony in Kazakhstan
2 p.m. — Video File feed of the crew’s return to Star City, Russia and a post-landing interview with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke.
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:
For more information about the space station, visit:
