NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev will return to Earth on July 26 after completing a 241-day mission aboard the International Space Station. Their Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft will undock from the station's Rassvet module at 3:02 a.m. EDT and land on the Kazakhstan steppe southeast of Dzhezkazgan at 6:26 a.m. EDT. NASA will stream live coverage of the return across multiple platforms.
During their stay, the crew completed 3,856 orbits and traveled more than 102 million miles. This marks the first ISS mission for Williams and Mikaev, while Kud-Sverchkov is flying his second expedition. Before undocking, the crew will conduct the Expedition 74/75 change of command ceremony on July 25, with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir taking command of the station as Expedition 75 begins.
Following landing, recovery teams will transport the crew by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Williams will then travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev return to their training base in Star City, Russia. NASA's coverage begins with the change of command ceremony at 9:40 a.m. EDT on July 25 and continues through landing coverage starting at 5:15 a.m. EDT on July 26.
The return concludes more than 25 years of continuous human presence on the station, which continues to advance scientific research and support long-duration spaceflight objectives for missions to the Moon and Mars under the Artemis program.