THUNDER BAY – A journey of many miles is coming to an end. Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield is returning to earth.
Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield, Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn are set to return to Earth Monday night to wrap up 146 days in space and 144 days on the International Space Station.
The Astronaut has engaged with the entire planet via Twitter with his stream of Tweets. On social media Hadfield has brought the thrill of space flight, and reached out to school children across the globe.
This morning, from the Space Station, Hadfield sang a David Bowie song to share with us on earth.
David Bowie tweeted back to Hadfield.
The departing trio bid farewell to their crewmates and boarded their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft, closing the hatches between the two vehicles at 3:50 p.m. EDT. Undocking is scheduled at 7:08 p.m. A deorbit burn planned at 9:37 p.m. will set the Soyuz on track for a landing southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 10:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Kazakh time).
Eight of the 12 prime Russian MI-8 helicopters flew from the staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan to Dzhezkazgan early Monday to pre-stage for landing. Four additional helicopters will depart Karaganda two hours prior to landing to converge on the landing zone.
NASA TV will provide live coverage of the undocking at 6:45 p.m. Landing coverage begins at 9:15 p.m. and will continue until the crew is safely in the medical tent at the landing site.
