NASA astronaut Don Pettit will return to Earth from the International Space Station Saturday, alongside his two Russian cosmonaut colleagues.
Pettit, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner are expected to land outside the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with the help of a parachute at 9:20 p.m. EDT Saturday.
The trio will begin the procedure of undocking their Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft from the ISS at 5:57 p.m. EDT.
NASA will stream the procedure on its website.
Because the landing will take place at 6:20 a.m. local time, it will occur on Pettit’s 70th birthday. He is the oldest active member of NASA’s astronaut core.
Pettit turned over command of the ISS Friday during a ceremony, handing control to Japan Aerospace Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi for the start of Expedition 73.
Last month, the uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft delivered over four tons of supplies and cargo to the ISS.
The three men will have orbited the Earth 3 520 times during their 220 days in space by the time they land.
Pettit served as flight engineer aboard the ISS during Expeditions 71 and 72 and has now completed four space flights for a total of 590 days in orbit.
After recovery, the trio will fly by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, before splitting up – Ovchinin and Vagner will fly on to Star City, Russia, while a NASA plane will take Pettit to Houston. (UPI)
