A three-person crew will return to Earth from the International Space Station on July 26, with NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev aboard Soyuz MS-28. The spacecraft will undock at 3:02 a.m. EDT and land on the Kazakhstan steppe roughly 3.5 hours later at 6:26 a.m. EDT. NASA will provide live coverage of the undocking, deorbit, and landing. The return marks the transition from ISS Expedition 74 to 75, with Kud-Sverchkov handing command to NASA astronaut Jessica Meir before departure.
The crew launched to the ISS on November 27 and will complete 241 days in space on their current mission. Williams and Mikaev are flying their first spaceflight, while Kud-Sverchkov is on his second. During their stay, the trio will have orbited Earth 3,856 times and traveled more than 102 million miles combined.
Coverage begins today at 9:40 a.m. EDT with the change-of-command ceremony. NASA will resume the webcast tonight at 11:10 p.m. EDT for crew farewells and hatch closure, then resume undocking coverage at 2:30 a.m. EDT on Sunday. Landing coverage starts at 5:15 a.m. EDT, with touchdown occurring southeast of Dzhezkazgan.
After landing, recovery teams will transport the crew by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Williams will then return to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev will return to Star City, Russia.