Astronaut Jonny Kim and Two Roscosmos Cosmonauts To Return to Earth After 245-Day ISS Mission — Live Coverage Planned

Jonny Kim, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexy Zubritsky Head Home After Long Stay Aboard ISS

Dec. 5 (UPI) — NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexy Zubritsky are scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) Monday evening and land in Kazakhstan the following morning, NASA announced Thursday.

Undocking and Landing

The crew will undock from the ISS's Prichal module at 8:41 p.m. EST Monday. Their Soyuz-27 spacecraft is expected to make a parachute-assisted touchdown southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 10:04 a.m. local time the next morning.

After touchdown, the three crewmembers will be flown by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, where recovery teams will meet them. A NASA aircraft will then transport Kim back to Houston, while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will travel to Roscosmos's training center in Star City, Russia.

Mission Highlights

The trio arrived at the station in April aboard the Soyuz-27 after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and will return in the same spacecraft, descending from an orbital altitude of roughly 262 miles. They are concluding a 245-day mission during which they orbited Earth about 3,920 times and traveled nearly 104 million miles.

This flight represents Ryzhikov's third mission to the ISS and the first station flights for Kim and Zubritsky.

Command Handover and Live Coverage

Ryzhikov will hand over command of the ISS to NASA astronaut Mark Fincke during a change-of-command ceremony scheduled for 10:30 a.m. EST on Sunday; NASA will stream the ceremony. NASA also plans to livestream the undocking and landing on NASA+, the NASA YouTube channel, Amazon Prime and multiple social media platforms.

Context and Recent Station Activity

The ISS has hosted international crews for more than 25 years to conduct research not possible on Earth. Recently, the station briefly had all eight of its docking ports occupied for the first time. In September, the crew successfully received Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo craft — which had experienced thruster problems that delayed its arrival — delivering roughly 11,000 pounds of cargo and scientific equipment.

Note: All times are local to the stated time zone. Landing and recovery operations are weather-dependent and subject to change.