Three Expedition 39 crew members are on their way back to Earth after more than six months aboard the International Space Station. Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA undocked their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Rassvet module on the Earth-facing side of the station at 6:36 p.m. EDT. At the time of undocking the complex was orbiting 261 statute miles over Mongolia. A deorbit burn at 9:04 p.m. will put the Soyuz on track for a parachute-assisted landing in the steppe of Kazakhstan southeast of Dzhezkazgan at 9:58 p.m. (7:58 a.m. Wednesday, Kazakh time). The landing will complete a journey of over 79 million statute miles and more than 3,000 orbits of the Earth for the trio since launching to the station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan back on Nov. 7. Live NASA Television coverage of the Expedition 39 landing begins at 8:45 p.m. Read more: nasa.gov/content/station-s-expedition-39-crew-heading-back-to-earth/
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 23:19:02 +0000
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