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Departure of International Space Station Crew Members
A NASA astronaut, a Russian cosmonaut, and the first female Belarusian in space are set to depart the International Space Station (ISS) late tonight. NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus will leave the ISS at 11:54 p.m. EDT if all goes according to plan.
Live Coverage
Viewers can tune in to live coverage of the key events of undocking and landing on Space.com and NASA Television. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. EDT with crew farewells and hatch closure as the departing crew members board their Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft. Undocking coverage will commence at 11:30 p.m. EDT. Please note that these times are subject to change based on operational constraints.
Mission Summary
O’Hara will conclude her 204-day space mission, while Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will wrap up a short mission that began on March 23 alongside NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who will remain on the ISS for a standard six-month rotation. The March 23 liftoff followed a rare Soyuz spacecraft abort during launch from Kazakhstan, attributed to a swiftly resolved battery issue.
If the undocking proceeds as scheduled, NASA anticipates the landing to occur on Saturday at 3:17 a.m. EDT near Karaganda, Kazakhstan. The deorbit burn is set for 2:23 a.m. EDT, with NASA Television’s coverage starting at 2 a.m. EDT.
Post-Landing Procedures
Following landing, the crew members will fly via helicopter from the landing site to the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. O’Hara will then depart for Houston, as detailed by NASA officials.
Vasilevskaya’s space journey marks a significant milestone as the first citizen of the Republic of Belarus to reach space. Previous Belarusian cosmonauts, Pyotr Klimuk and Vladimir Kovalyonok, from the former Belarus SSR, undertook their initial spaceflights in 1973 and 1977, respectively.
The Soyuz MS-25, which ferried O’Hara, Novitskiy, and Vasilevskaya to space, will remain at the ISS to transport another crew. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub will occupy the other two seats, alongside Dyson, after completing their year-long mission this autumn.
Furthermore, the SpaceX Crew-8 Dragon spacecraft is linked to the ISS hosting the remaining members of Expedition 71: NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barrett, Jeannette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. This team launched on March 4 for an anticipated half-year stay in space.
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