How To Watch A NASA Astronaut Return To Earth Tonight

Late Tuesday evening, Mark Vande Hei, like many NASA astronauts before him, will enter a Russian spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. For the journey back to Earth.

Orbiting at an altitude of about 250 miles above the surface, the space station is one of the few places where daily cooperation between the United States and Russia continues despite the deterioration of diplomatic and economic relations due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

About eight hours later, Mr. Vande Hei and two Russian astronauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, will crash into a landing in Kazakhstan, where they will be met by NASA and Russian personnel.

“As we always do,” Joel Montalbano, NASA’s space station program manager, said at a press conference a few weeks ago.

When and how can I watch the departure?

Departure will begin at 23:30 Eastern time, when Mr. Vande Hei, Mr. Shkaplerov and Mr. Dubrov bid farewell to the other seven astronauts still in the station. At midnight on Wednesday, they will close the lid of the Soyuz spacecraft that will take them home.

NASA will broadcast the hatch closing and other parts of the takeoff and return website and on YouTube.

Are the US and Russia still cooperating in space?

President Biden has Strongly condemned President Vladimir V. Putinand the US government placed A wide variety of sanctions against Russia Some due to its invasion of Ukraine, including those related to aviation technologies. But the cooperation in orbit continued.

This is despite the belligerent statements of Dmitry Rogozin, who runs the Russian space program. He shared a video suggesting that the Russians could outrun Mr. Vande Hei. NASA officials carefully brushed aside what Mr. Rogozin had said and insisted that nothing had changed.

“The working relationship between NASA and our international partners continues for the safety of our astronauts,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in his NASA State speech on Monday. “This includes the professional relationship between cosmonauts and our astronauts.”

Other relationships in space did not survive. European Space Agency postponed A rover mission to Mars because it was based on a Russian rocket. And a British satellite internet company, OneWeb has canceled a number of launches It used Russia’s Soyuz rockets and shifted some to SpaceX rockets.

What happens when the astronauts land?

Many American government officials were brought home from Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. But a regular NASA contingent of flight doctors, public relations officials and representatives from the astronaut office, and space station management will be there to greet Mr. Vande Hei when he lands.

“There is no deviation from previous Soyuz landing return plans,” NASA spokesman Gary Jordan said.

After initial medical checkups, the astronauts will rest in tents for a while before traveling by helicopter to the airport, where Mr. Vande Hei and his NASA colleagues will board a Gulfstream jet and take off.

Mr Jordan said NASA podcast Describing an earlier return, the episode was “an accurate depiction of the storyline to be expected.”

Mr. Vande Hei will return to Houston approximately 24 hours after landing in Kazakhstan.

How long has Mark Vande Hei been in orbit?

For Mr. Vande Hei, the landing will take about a year in space. Its 355-day stay is the longest single spaceflight by an American. This exceeded the 340 days limit set by Scott Kelly six years ago.

“The last day is different,” Mr Kelly said of the end of space travel in an interview.

The final jobs were clearing his space for the next astronaut, throwing away unnecessary items, and contacting friends and family about plans on the ground.