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VIDEO: LANDING SITE VIDEO OF CREW EXITING CAPSULE PLAY
VIDEO: SOYUZ TMA-19 DEPARTS THE SPACE STATION PLAY
VIDEO: CREW BOARDS SOYUZ CAPSULE FOR DEPARTURE PLAY
VIDEO: SPACE STATION CHANGE OF COMMAND CEREMONY PLAY
VIDEO: THANKSGIVING MEAL FOR THE CREW ON STATION PLAY
MORE: EXPEDITION 25 VIDEO COVERAGE
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With Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin back on the planet safe and sound, the International Space Station continues to circle Earth with the new Expedition 26 crew of commander Scott Kelly and Russians Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka.

Another three-person crew -- NASA's Catherine Coleman, Russian Dmitry Kondratyev and Italian Paolo Nespoli -- will launch aboard a Soyuz from Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 15 at 2:09 p.m. EST and reach the space station December 17 at 3:09 p.m. EST to boost the outpost's resident team to the full size of six members.

The station partners have begun employing "indirect crew handovers" that see the returning members land a couple of weeks prior to their replacements launching.

All three space fliers are looking healthy and happy after their safe landing. They'll be choppered to the Kazakh city of Kustanai, then Yurchikhin will take a plane back to Star City outside Moscow. Wheelock and Walker will board a NASA aircraft for the long flight to Houston.

NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock has exited the Soyuz after his second trip to the International Space Station. Including an earlier space shuttle ride, he's now accumulated 178 days in space.

The U.S. Army colonel, raised in New York and a graduate from West Point, previously flew on shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission in 2007.

Walker is talking on a satellite telephone.

Shannon Walker has been extracted from the Soyuz after her first spaceflight. She is now being seated outside in a reclining chair next to Yurchikhin.

Walker, the station flight engineer and Soyuz co-pilot, was the first astronaut born and raised in Houston, home to NASA's mission control center.

First to exit the capsule is Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, commander of the Soyuz spacecraft during launch and landing.

He has returned from his third trip to the International Space Station, having flown on a space shuttle construction flight in 2002 and the long-duration Expedition 15 mission in 2007. And now with this latest voyage completed, Yurchikhin has logged 371 days in space.

The U.S. flight surgeon peeked into the capsule after hatch opening and got a thumbs up from each crew member, the NASA spokesman on the scene reports.

The recovery team will erect the inflatable medical tent where the Soyuz crew can remove their spacesuits and undergo preliminary exams.

The recovery team aboard a convoy of Russian helicopters is touching down around the spacecraft to begin assisting the crew out of the capsule. The Soyuz came to rest on its side, which is not uncommon.

The official landing time has been marked at 11:46 p.m. EST.

LANDING CONFIRMED! The Russian Soyuz TMA-19 capsule has landed in Kazakhstan, capping the 163-day voyage of Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin to the International Space Station.

Standing by for confirmation of touchdown.

At an altitude of about 12 meters, cockpit displays will tell cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin to prepare for the soft landing engine firing. Just one meter above the surface, and just seconds before touchdown, the six solid propellant engines are fired in a final braking maneuver, enabling the Soyuz to land to complete its mission, settling down at a velocity of about 1.5 meters per second (3.35 mph).

Altitude currently about 3,200 feet.

Recovery forces flying in the landing zone continue in communications with the crew and report the trio is doing fine.

Now five minutes to the planned touchdown time in Kazakhstan.

At an altitude of five kilometers, the module's heat shield is scheduled to be jettisoned. This is followed by the termination of the aerodynamic spin cycle and the dumping of any residual propellant from the Soyuz. Computers also will arm the module's seat shock absorbers in preparation for landing.

With the jettisoning of the capsule's heat shield, the Soyuz altimeter is exposed to the surface of the Earth. Using a reflector system, signals are bounced to the ground from the Soyuz and reflected back, providing the capsule's computers updated information on altitude and rate of descent.

Visual spotting of the Soyuz is reported by the recovery forces.

The fixed-wing aircraft that serves as the central command for the search and recovery forces has established a communications link with the crew aboard Soyuz.

Flight controllers report the Soyuz is operating properly on the automatic sequence. A downmode to the ballistic phase that has occurred in the past did not happen tonight.

Once the drogue chute is jettisoned, the main parachute is deployed. It is connected to the Descent Module by two harnesses, covers an area of about 1,000 square meters and slows descent to 7.2 meters/second.

Initially, the Descent Module will hang underneath the main parachute at a 30-degree angle with respect to the horizon for aerodynamic stability, but the bottommost harness will be severed a few minutes before landing, allowing the Descent Module to hang vertically through touchdown.

Onboard computers should be starting a commanded sequence for deployment of the capsule's parachutes at an altitude of about 10 kilometers. Two "pilot" parachutes are unfurled first, extracting a 24-square-meter drogue parachute. Within 16 seconds, the craft's fall will slow from 230 meters per second to about 80 m/s.

The parachute deployment creates a gentle spin for the Soyuz as it dangles underneath the drogue chute, assisting in the capsule's stability in the final minutes before touchdown.

Now back in communications with Russian flight controllers, commander Fyodor Yurchikhin reports the G-load is going down now.

The crew should be experiencing the period of maximum G-loads during entry.

The capsule's flight path has crossed the Mediterranean, Turkey and the Black Sea before flying over southern Russia and into Kazakhstan.

Twenty minutes to landing. The Soyuz is making its fiery plunge into the atmosphere now.

Entry Interface. The Soyuz is now hitting the upper fringes of the atmosphere at an altitude of 400,000 feet. The Expedition crew will soon begin to feel the first tugs of Earth's gravity after six months in space.

The entry guidance by the spacecraft's onboard software package is scheduled to start in a couple of minutes.

Module separation has occurred, Mission Control confirms. .

The three segments of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft have jettisoned apart, allowing the crew-carrying Descent Module to safely ferry the three crew members back to Earth. The no-longer-needed Orbital Module and Instrumentation/Propulsion Module are designed to burn up in the atmosphere.

Russian flight controllers are instructing the crew to repress the capsule with additional oxygen.

The Soyuz computers have been loaded with the commands to perform the pyrotechnic separation of the modules.

Time to touchdown is now 30 minutes.

In about five minutes at an altitude of 87 miles, just above the first traces of the Earth's atmosphere, computers will command the separation of the three modules that comprise the Soyuz vehicle. With the crew strapped in to the Descent Module, the forward Orbital Module containing the docking mechanism and rendezvous antennas and the rear Instrumentation/Propulsion Module, which houses the engines and avionics, will pyrotechnically separate and burn up in the atmosphere.

The Descent Module's computers will orient the capsule with its ablative heat shield pointing forward to repel the buildup of heat as it plunges into the atmosphere. Entry interface at the upper fringes of the atmosphere, when the capsule is about 400,000 feet above the Earth, happens about three minutes after module separation.

The crew has been adjusting the atmosphere by opening a valve to boost the oxygen level in the capsule.

Now crossing Africa.

With the deorbit burn accomplished, the fleet of helicopters in the search and recovery forces are departing the staging area in Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, bound for the intended Soyuz landing zone.

The crew members, already strapped into their seats, have now closed their helmet visors.

BURN COMPLETE! The Soyuz has performed its braking maneuver, committing the craft for entry into the atmosphere. Touchdown is about 47 minutes away.

The craft is flying backward over the south-central Atlantic Ocean on a northeasterly trajectory bound for Africa and eventually Asia where landing is expected at 11:46 p.m. EST in north-central Kazakhstan, or 10:46 a.m. local time.

BURN IGNITION! Thrusters on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft are firing to brake from orbit. This deorbit burn is expected to last four minutes and 21 seconds to put the capsule on a course for the trip back to Earth.

Clocks are counting down to ignition of the deorbit burn at 10:55:12 p.m. EST. It will slow the Soyuz by 258 miles per hour.

The weather forecast at the landing zone calls for partly cloudy skies but dry conditions, light winds and frigid temperatures in the 20s F.

Soyuz has moved about 7 miles away from the space station for the deorbit burn that's coming up in 25 minutes.

The deorbit burn is coming up at 10:55:12 p.m. EST, a braking maneuver lasting 4 minutes and 21 minutes, based on the latest timeline from Mission Control. Separation of the Soyuz modules is now expected at 11:20:30 p.m. and entry interface at 11:23:29 p.m. The parachutes deploy at 11:32:13 p.m., leading to touchdown around 11:46:34 p.m. EST.

Command of the International Space Station now belongs to the new Expedition 26 commander Scott Kelly and Russians Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. They'll be joined by another American, a Russian and an Italian when the next Soyuz arrives on December 17.

The 15-second separation firing by the Soyuz's thrusters has been completed to accelerate the spacecraft's departure from the outpost

The undocking occurred 225 miles over the Russian-Mongolian border.

UNDOCKING. The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft has separated from the space station after 161 days there, setting the stage for tonight's return to Earth with two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut.

The undocking command has been issued. Hooks and latches holding the Soyuz and the station's Rassvet mini research module tightly together are being opened now.

Soyuz's docking mechanism is powered up and the station's thrusters are inhibited for the upcoming undocking event.

In the next few minutes, the International Space Station will be placed into a "free drift" mode in preparation for the Soyuz departure. The complex has been maneuvered into the proper orientation for undocking.

The homeward-bound crew has worked together for the past couple of hours to power up the Soyuz, active the craft's systems, remove docking clamps, depressurize the vestibule between the capsule and station, and don their Sokol spacesuits. Undocking is set for 8:23 p.m. EST after a slight time revision from Mission Control.

Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin have boarded their Soyuz spacecraft for tonight's journey from the International Space Station to the landing site in Kazakhstan. The crew confirmed at 5:14 p.m. EST that the hatchway between the station and capsule was closed.

Check out our landing preview story on tonight's return to Earth.

Two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut will depart the International Space Station tonight and return to Earth in a parachute-equipped Soyuz descent capsule after a half-year in orbit.

Commander Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin are heading home after their tour-of-duty as part of Expeditions 24 and 25.

The trio will say their farewells to the station's other residents -- the new Expedition 26 commander Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka -- then float into the Soyuz TMA-19 craft currently docked to the station's Rassvet module and close the hatchway around 4:50 p.m. EDT.

The homeward-bound crew will work together for a next couple of hours to power up the Soyuz, active the craft's systems, remove docking clamps, depressurize the vestibule between the capsule and station and perform other work to ready for undocking.

Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin have been living on the station since June 17. Their departure begins the next rotation of crews and change of Expedition mission number.

Once the undocking happens, the station will be staffed by just Kelly, Kaleri and Skripochka until another Russian Soyuz spacecraft launches December 15 and docks two days later, boosting the crew back to the full size of six with the addition of Catherine Coleman, Dmitry Kondratyev and Paolo Nespoli.

Tonight's Soyuz departure activities begin when the command to open hooks and latches firmly holding the capsule to its docking port is sent at 8:19 p.m. EST (0119 GMT). Physical separation between the two craft occurs three minutes later at 8:22 p.m.

After moving a short distance from the station, the Soyuz engines will fire for 15 seconds to execute the so-called separation burn to propel the craft out of the orbiting lab's vicinity.

About two-and-a-half hours later, the capsule's engines will ignite for the deorbit burn to brake from space. The onboard computers will initiate an engine firing at 10:54:30 p.m. EST (0354:30 GMT) that slows the ship just enough to slip out of orbit for the return to Earth. The burn will last four minutes and 24 seconds.

Shortly before reaching the top of the atmosphere, the Soyuz's three distinct modules will separate at 11:19:49 p.m. EST (0419:49 GMT) under computer command. The crew will be located in the Descent Module, which is sandwiched between the forward Orbital Module containing the docking mechanism and the rear Instrumentation and Propulsion Module housing the engines and avionics.

The Descent Module orients itself to point the ablative heat shield in the direction of travel to protect the craft and crew from the intense plunge back to Earth. At 11:22:47 p.m. (0422:47 GMT) and an altitude of 63 miles, the moment of Entry Interface occurs as the capsule hits the upper fringes of the atmosphere for the fiery re-entry.

During the fall to Earth, the Orbital Module and Instrumentation and Propulsion Module will burn up in the atmosphere.

About seven minutes after Entry Interface, the crew will experience the period of maximum G-loads during entry at an altitude of 20 miles, as they feel the tug of Earth's gravity for the first time since launch.

At 11:31:25 p.m. (0431:25 GMT), the onboard computers will start a commanded sequence for deployment of the capsule's parachutes at an altitude of about 6.6 miles. Two "pilot" parachutes are unfurled first, extracting a drogue parachute.

The parachute deployment creates a gentle spin for the Soyuz as it dangles underneath the drogue chute, assisting in the capsule's stability in the final minutes before touchdown.

The drogue chute will be jettisoned, allowing the main parachute to be deployed. It is connected to the Descent Module by two harnesses.

Initially, the Descent Module will hang underneath the main parachute at a 30-degree angle with respect to the horizon for aerodynamic stability, but the bottommost harness will be severed a few minutes before landing, allowing the Descent Module to hang vertically through touchdown.

At an altitude of just over three miles, the heat shield will be cast free. That is followed by dumping of any residual propellant from the Soyuz.

Once the heat shield is gone, the Soyuz altimeter is exposed to the surface of the Earth. Using a reflector system, signals are bounced to the ground from the Soyuz and reflected back, providing the capsule's computers updated information on altitude and rate of descent.

At an altitude of about 40 feet, cockpit displays will tell the crew to prepare for the soft landing engine firing. Just seconds before touchdown, the six solid propellant engines are fired in a final braking maneuver, enabling the Soyuz to land to complete its mission.

Touchdown is expected at 11:46:25 p.m. EST (0446:25 GMT) on the steppes of central Kazakhstan. The target landing spot is 50.59 degrees North latitude and 67.10 degrees East longitude. The mission concludes with a duration of 163 days, 7 hours and 11 minutes.

A group of Russian helicopters carrying the recovery forces should arrive soon after landing to help the crew exit the capsule.

Each crew member will be placed in special reclining chairs near the capsule for initial medical tests and begin readapting to Earth's gravity. They will be transferred into a portable medical tent erected near the touchdown point where the three crew members can remove their spacesuits.

Post-landing plans call for the crew to be flown from the site in helicopters.

Watch this page for live updates during the undocking and landing.

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