Soyuz MS-03
Two crew members from France and Russia are gearing up for a pre-sunset landing in the steppe of Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft to close out a 197-day mission as part of ISS Expedition 50/51. Veteran Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and ESA's Thomas Pesquet will depart the Space Station at 10:50 UTC on Friday and complete one and a half orbits around Earth ahead of a rocket-powered braking maneuver at 13:17 UTC to begin the return trip to Earth.
Soyuz MS-03 will make a parachute-and-rocket-assisted touchdown as 14:10 UTC, 8:10 p.m. local time in Kazakhstan, a little over an hour before sundown.
| Launch: November 17, 2016 | Mission Updates |
| Mission Duration: 196 Days & 18 Hours | Soyuz MS Spacecraft |
| Docking Port: Rassvet | Landing Profile |
| Return to Earth: June 2, 2017 | Oleg Novitskiy |
| Hatch Closure: 7:35 UTC | Thomas Pesquet |
| Undocking: 10:50 UTC | Photo Galleries |
| D/O Burn: 13:17 UTC (276sec, 128m/s) | Video Galleries |
| Landing: 14:10 UTC | ISS Expedition 51 |
| Landing Site: 147km S-E of Dzhezkazgan |