NASA astronaut, 2 cosmonauts returning to Earth on July 26: Watch it live

A trio of space travelers is set to return to Earth this Sunday following a long-duration mission at the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev will depart the orbiting laboratory in their Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft. The undocking procedure is scheduled for 3:02 a.m. EDT on July 26.

After detaching from the space station, the spacecraft will execute a deorbit burn to begin its descent through the atmosphere. The landing is expected to occur on the steppe of Kazakhstan roughly three and a half hours after departure. This concludes a mission that saw the crew spend 241 days in space, during which they orbited the planet over 3,800 times and traveled more than 100 million miles.

The mission began on November 27, 2025, when the crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This flight marked the first space mission for Williams and Mikaev, while Kud-Sverchkov completed his second trip to the station. Their return also triggers a shift in station command, as Kud-Sverchkov hands over control of the laboratory to NASA astronaut Jessica Meir to officially transition from Expedition 74 to Expedition 75.

Ground teams in Kazakhstan are prepared to recover the crew once the capsule touches down. Following the landing, the astronauts will be transported by helicopter to a recovery site in Karaganda. Williams will then begin his journey back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, while his Russian counterparts will return to their training base in Star City. Interested viewers can watch the entire homecoming process live through NASA coverage.