Expedition 42 Trio Undocks for Voyage Home

After spending 167 days aboard the International Space Station, Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova undocked from the station at 6:44 p.m. EDT to begin their voyage home. Samokutyaev, the Soyuz commander, is at the controls of the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft.

They will perform a separation burn to increase the distance from the station before executing a 4-minute, 41-second deorbit burn at 9:16 p.m. The crew is scheduled to land at 10:07 p.m. southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

The departure of Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova marks the end of Expedition 42. The Expedition 43 crew members, Commander Terry Virts of NASA, Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA and Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos will continue research and maintenance aboard the station and will be joined on March 27 by three additional crew members, NASA’s Scott Kelly and Roscosmos’ Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka.

NASA Television will air live coverage of the Soyuz TMA-14M deorbit burn and landing beginning at 9 p.m.

Here is the timeline for Expedition 42’s landing.

Wednesday, March 11

EST                            EVENT

9:00 p.m.                   NASA TV: Expedition 42 Soyuz TMA-14M deorbit burn and landing coverage

9:16 p.m.                    Soyuz TMA-14M deorbit burn (4 minutes, 41 seconds duration)

9:20 p.m.                    Soyuz deorbit burn complete

9:42 p.m.                    Soyuz module separation (altitude 87 miles)

9:45 p.m.                    Soyuz atmospheric entry (altitude 62 miles)

9:53 p.m.                    Command to open parachute (6.5 miles)

10:07 p.m.                 Expedition 42 Soyuz TMA-14M landing southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan