Three cosmonauts living aboard the International Space Station are set to return to Earth Thursday, Sept. 29.
Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos will be at the controls of the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft flanked by fellow cosmonauts Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov for their undocking from the station’s Prichal module at 3:34 a.m. EDT on Sept. 29.
The trio will head for a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan more than four hours later at 6:57 a.m. EDT (4:57 p.m. Kazakhstan time).
NASA's @SpaceX #Crew5 mission to the @Space_Station is now scheduled to launch no earlier than Tuesday, Oct. 4, as we continue to monitor the impacts of Hurricane Ian. Follow our Crew-5 blog for the latest mission updates: https://t.co/3yDKJ24Pew pic.twitter.com/gJxMEAD7gH
— NASA (@NASA) September 27, 2022
Coverage of the crew’s change of command, undocking, and landing will air live on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app as follows (all times Eastern):
Wednesday, Sept. 28
9:35 a.m. – Change of Command Ceremony (Artemyev hands over station command to ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti)
Thursday, Sept. 29
3:15 a.m. – Soyuz undocking coverage begins
5:45 a.m. – Deorbit burn and landing coverage begins
The three cosmonauts launched to the station on March 18, and are completing a mission of 185 days and 2,960 orbits of the Earth spanning 77 million miles.
Did you catch the #DARTMission stream live or Didymos it? Impact is over, but the research continues. As scientists delve into data and telescopes release images of the asteroid from their POV, follow @AsteroidWatch and @NASASolarSystem for updates. https://t.co/ZNEYDQVA8Y pic.twitter.com/dn2veS6zbG
— NASA (@NASA) September 27, 2022
When the Soyuz undocks, Expedition 68 will formally begin aboard the station under the command of Cristoforetti. Joining her are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Frank Rubio as well as cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.
During Expedition 68, the arrival of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 aboard Dragon Endurance will bring four more crew members to the space station. That crew currently is scheduled for launch Monday, Oct. 3, for a short handover period with Crew-4 astronauts prior to their return to Earth shortly after.
Learn more about space station activities at:
https://www.nasa.gov/station