After eight months in orbit, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim leaves the International Space Station (ISS) for the return trip to Earth.
Kim will travel home aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky.
Undocking occurs Monday evening ET, with final descent occurring later in the day. Read on for all the details on how to watch a live stream of homecoming’s most important moments.
At the time of departure, Kim’s mission will have lasted 245 days. During its time at 250 miles above the Earth, it is estimated to have orbited the Earth 3,920 times and traveled nearly 104 million miles.
This was the first orbital adventure for Kim and Zubritsky and the third for Ryzhikov.
When he wasn’t working on scientific research, Kim took time to share posts documenting some of his experiences aboard the orbital laboratory. These included a stunning time-lapse of an aurora borealis, vacuuming in zero gravity conditions and the challenge of making sushi in orbit (that didn’t look that appetizing). He did a little better with a burger.
Here’s how to watch
Kim, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will undock from the station’s Prichal module on Monday, December 8 at 8:41 p.m. ET, with coverage beginning at 8:15 p.m. ET.
Coverage of the spacecraft’s exit and landing will begin at 10:30 p.m. Monday, with release from orbit expected to occur around 11:10 p.m. ET.
On the way home, the spacecraft will fly at a speed of 28,000 km/h before decelerating sharply as it enters Earth’s atmosphere.
The parachute landing of the Soyuz spacecraft will take place shortly after midnight at 12:04 a.m. in the steppes of Kazakhstan southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan, about 2,400 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
You can watch NASA’s live coverage of the crew’s return on NASA+, Amazon Prime and the space agency’s YouTube channel. You can also watch it using the player embedded at the top of this page.
