Replay of today's landing of the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 10:14 CEST (08:14 UT) returning Expedition 30/31 crewmembers Oleg Kononenko, André Kuipers and Don Pettit to Earth after 193 days in space.
The Soyuz TMA-03M landing site is located 217 km to the southeast of the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan.
Watch the hatch closure, departure and landing of the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft live via NASA TV.
Schedule:
03:15 CEST / 01:15 UT -- Expedition 31 farewells and hatch closure coverage (hatch closure at 03:40/01:40 UT)
06:30 CEST / 04:30 UT -- Expedition 31/Soyuz TMA-03M undocking coverage (undocking at 06:47 CEST / 04:47 UT)
09:00 CEST / 07:00 UT -- Expedition 31/Soyuz TMA-03M deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn at 09:19 CEST / 07:19 UT, landing at 10:15 CEST / 08:15 UT)
Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko ceremonially handed command of the International Space Station to Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka. The two cosmonauts along with their four station crewmates were inside the Zvezda service module for the crew handover.
The sequence of events below are as expected on 1 July for the return of the Soyuz TMA-03M with ESA astronaut André Kuipers, NASA's Don Pettit and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko. Departure starts with the undocking command at 06:50 CEST (04:50 UT) and ends with landing in Kazakhstan at 10:15 CEST (08:15 UT).
03:32 CEST (01:32 UT) - Hatch closure
06:44 CEST (04:44 UT) - Undocking command to open hooks and latches
06:47 CEST (04:47 UT) - Hooks opened / physical Separation of Soyuz TMA-03M from the Rassvet/MRM1 module at 0.12 m/s
Physical separation from Rassvet on this occasion (not Pirs) (Credit: NASA)
06:56 CEST (04:56 UT) - Separation burn from ISS (15 second burn of the Soyuz engines, 0.55 m/s; Soyuz distance from the ISS is ~15-20 metres)
09:19 CEST (07:19 UT) - Deorbit Burn (4 min 15 sec in duration, 115.2 m/sec; Soyuz distance from the ISS is ~12 km)
Deorbit burn (Credit: NASA)
09:48 CEST (07:48 UT) - Separation of modules (~23 mins after deorbit Burn; 140 km altitude; undocking command + ~2 hours, 57 mins.)
Separation of modules (Credit: NASA)
09:51 CEST (07:51 UT) - Entry interface (101.8 km altitude)
Reentry in Earth's atmosphere (Credit: NASA)
10:00 CEST (08:00 UT) - Command to open chutes (10.7 km altitude)
Two Pilot Parachutes are first deployed, the second of which extracts the Drogue
Chute. The Drogue Chute is then released, measuring 24 square meters, slowing the Soyuz down from a descent rate of 230 m/s to 80 m/s.
The main parachute is then released, covering an area of 1000 square metres; it slows the Soyuz to a descent rate of 7.2 m/s; its harnesses first allows the Soyuz to descend at an angle of 30 degrees to expel heat, then shifts the Soyuz to a straight vertical descent.
Main parachute deployed (Credit: NASA)
Appx. 2 seconds before landing - Soft Landing Engine Firing (6 engines fire to slow the Soyuz descent rate to 1.5 m/s just 0.8 meter above the ground)
Soft Landing Engine Firing (Credit: ESA)
10:15:02 CEST (08:15:02 UT/14:15:02 Kazakhstan time) - Landing (Descent take about 3 hours 24 mins) 217 km SE of Dzhezkazgan; 7 hours 1 minute before sunset at the landing site in Kazakhstan.
Landing, deploy antenna (Credit: NASA)
Crew departure to Houston. Landing +5.5 hours; duration of flight: 16.5 hours
Listen to ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli describe his experience of returning to Earth with the Soyuz spacecraft. "To transfer yourself from space back to the ground you have to go through this gruesome, pretty gruelling event," he explains.
Talking to the Neemo crew (Credit: ESA/NASA)
André writes: "The six of us on the Space Station live quite isolated from the world. But we are not the only people in such a situation. Before my mission started I asked if I could be in contact with two other missions. One on the bottom of the sea and one on the South Pole. I had very special conversations with people that are in similar situations or even more isolated."
Read more in André's blog: 'Cut off underwater and near the South Pole'
André works with one of the experiment racks in the Kibo laboratory (Credit: ESA/NASA)
André writes: "Two more days to go before my stay in space will end. I managed to complete three important tasks before I have to leave. I inspected cooling fluid valves for the Columbus laboratory, fixed an American scientific experiment rack and worked on the Japanese Ryutai rack. We do many maintenance tasks in the ISS. Maintenance must be done in a timely fashion to assure that the Space Station is used optimally for our scientific experiments."
Read more in André's blog: 'Checking water valves and another false alarm'
In this video Space Station astronauts André Kuipers, Don Pettit and Joe Acaba talk to US media in a final media interview before the end of the PromISSe mission to the ISS. André and Don are scheduled to land in their Soyuz spacecraft together with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko on 1 July after 6 1/2 months in orbit. Acaba remains on board the ISS until mid-September.
Expedition 31 Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Joe Acaba of NASA and André Kuipers of the European Space Agency discussed life and research on board the International Space Station during an educational in-flight event with US students attending an education event in Philadelphia on 26 June.
The session included some great questions such as 'How do you do your laundry?', 'Can you have pets on the space station?', 'Can you take a shower in space?', leading to some interesting and often entertaining answers from the ISS residents.
