After 5 months of 2,600 orbits, 3 astronauts prepare to enter earth

Three astronauts are preparing for a fiery re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 500mph, after five months in space and 2,688 orbits of their planet.

NASA’s Scott Tingle, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), will close the hatch for their journey back from the International Space Station (ISS) at 6.55am UK time.

Their Soyuz spacecraft will undock from the ISS around 10.16am and travel away from the space station for a couple of hours, before igniting its engines to take it into Earth’s orbit.

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Shedding hardware it no longer needs, it will re-enter the atmosphere with a parachute slowing it down to a more manageable 179mph or so, before rocket engines slow it further as it gets closer to the ground.

The capsule’s landing in the Kazakh Steppe – a vast region of open grassland in northern Kazakhstan – is scheduled for 1.40pm. The departure and landing will be live on NASA’s website.

The astronauts have covered 71.2 million miles in their 168 days in space.

 

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