Watch Live Internet Video Stream as ISS Astronauts Return to Earth aboard Russian Soyuz on Sept. 15

Courtesy of NASA-TV, both television and live internet streaming video of the return to Earth of three members of the International Space Station will be available for viewers around the world next week. The Astronauts, who have lived on board the ISS for over 5 months will return to Earth in a Russian Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft on September 15th and 12:01PM Eastern time. The time is 10:01AM and the 16th local time in Kazakhstan where the astronauts will land.

The returning crew members are part of the Expedition 28 team consisting of Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan and off-going station Commander Andrey Borisenko. Remaining behind in the ISS are Expedition 29 station Commander Mike Fossum of NASA, Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Volkov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa.

The Expedition 29 crew is slated to return to the Earth in mid-November. With the plan to launch 3 additional crew members to the ISS to join the Expedition 29 team on hold following an unexplained explosion of an earlier launch of an unmanned ISS Progress 44 cargo craft, the ISS may remain vacant once the team leaves in November.

Once NASA and the other partner countries of the ISS complete a review and give approval to resume Soyuz launches to the ISS, the space station will be re-crewed by NASA Flight Engineer Dan Burbank, Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Russian Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin.

To view live video coverage of the departure, undocking and return to earth for the Space Station astronauts, watch the live internet video stream here or tune to NASA TV where available. The full schedule events and times are listed below in Central time.

Wednesday, Sept. 14
4:40 p.m. – Expedition 28-29 change of command ceremony (Borisenko hands over station command to Fossum)

Thursday, Sept. 15
4 p.m. – Soyuz TMA-21 crew farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure scheduled at 4:35 p.m.)
7:15 p.m. – Undocking coverage (undocking scheduled at 7:37 p.m.)
9:30 p.m. – Deorbit burn and landing coverage (Deorbit burn scheduled at 10:06 p.m., landing in Kazakhstan scheduled at 11:01 p.m.)

Friday, Sept. 16
2 a.m. – Video File of the landing and post-landing activities (repeated at 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.)
11 a.m. – Video File of the landing and post-landing activities that includes post-landing interview with Garan and the cosmonauts’ return to Chkalovsky Airfield near Star City, Russia.