Pictures from today's Soyuz landing and a map illustrating where the capsule returned to Earth are posted on our Spaceflight Now's Facebook page.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit has exited the Soyuz after his third spaceflight to the International Space Station. He has accumulated 369 days in orbit.

Pettit, 57, previously lived aboard the station for 161 days as the Expedition 6 science officer 8 years ago and flew 16 days on shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission that remodeled the outpost's interior with the life-support equipment needed for larger resident crews. The Oregon native is married with two children and has a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Arizona.

Read his full bio.

Flight engineer and Soyuz co-pilot Andre Kuipers, now a veteran of 204 days in space, has been extracted from the capsule.

Kuipers, 53, is a European Space Agency astronaut back from his second trip to the International Space Station, after flying a brief 11-day mission in 2004 that replaced Soyuz capsules parked at the complex. The doctor was as an officer of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Medical Corps. before eventually becoming an astronaut. Born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, he is married with four children.

Read his full bio.

First to exit the capsule was Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, now a veteran of 392 days in space.

Kononenko, 48, also worked aboard the International Space Station during the 199-day Expedition 17 mission in 2008. The Russian cosmonaut is a mechanical engineer who oversaw piloting tasks for the Soyuz spacecraft during the launch and landing phases of the mission. He is married with two children.

Read his full bio.

The recovery team aboard a convoy of Russian helicopters is landing around the spacecraft to begin assisting the crew out of the capsule.

TOUCHDOWN! The Soyuz TMA-03M capsule has landed in Kazakhstan, capping the 193-day voyage of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA's Don Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers to the International Space Station.

At an altitude of about 12 meters, cockpit displays will tell the cosmonauts 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).

Now five minutes to touchdown as Soyuz descends to Kazakhstan under its main parachute.

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.

Live television now being received from the landing site showing the Soyuz under its main chute.

Recovery forces in the landing zone confirm the Soyuz chutes have deployed.

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.

Russian flight controllers have restored voice communications with the three-man crew through a ground tracking site. The trio reports all is going well in a nominal re-entry.

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 reports.

The three segments of the Soyuz TMA-03M 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.

Still awaiting confirmation of module separation. Very limited communications are expected from the Soyuz during today's descent given the higher altitude of the International Space Station and the larger separation distances to the capsule antennas, NASA says.

Time to touchdown is now 30 minutes.

In about three 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 Soyuz flight path is crossing Africa now as the spacecraft falls back toward the atmosphere.

Mission Control reports all of the deorbit burn parameters looked good. The spacecraft is headed home.

BURN COMPLETE! The Soyuz has performed its braking maneuver, committing the craft for entry into the atmosphere. Touchdown is about 51 minutes away.

Good chamber pressure, good performance from the braking engines.

BURN IGNITION! Thrusters on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft are firing to brake from orbit. This deorbit burn is expected to last four minutes and 15 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 3:19:14 a.m. EDT. It will slow the Soyuz by 258 miles per hour.

The deorbit burn is coming up at 3:19 a.m. EDT, a braking maneuver lasting 4 minutes and 15 seconds. Separation of the Soyuz modules is expected at 3:47 a.m. and entry interface at 3:51 a.m. The parachutes deploy at 3:59 a.m., leading to touchdown around 4:14 a.m. EDT.

The separation firing by the Soyuz's thrusters has been completed to accelerate the spacecraft's departure from the International Space Station. The capsule will be several miles away when it performs the deorbit burn today at 3:19 a.m. EDT.

The International Space Station now belongs to the new Expedition 32 commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin and NASA's Joe Acaba flying as a three-person crew for the next couple of weeks before new members are launched on July 14. They'll be joined by another American, a Russian and a Japanese astronaut when the next Soyuz arrives two days later.

The undocking occurred 250 miles over China.

UNDOCKING. The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft has separated from the space station after 191 days there, setting the stage for today's return to Earth with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA's Don Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers.

The undocking command has been issued. Hooks and latches holding the Soyuz and the station's Rassvet 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 12:48 a.m. EDT.

Oleg Kononenko, Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers have boarded their Soyuz spacecraft for tonight's journey from the International Space Station to the landing site in Kazakhstan. The crew closed the hatchway between the station and capsule at 9:32 p.m. EDT.

A three-man crew from NASA, Europe and Russia will complete its half-year mission aboard the International Space Station and return to Earth in a parachute-equipped Soyuz descent capsule early Sunday.

Touchdown in Kazakhstan is expected at 4:14 a.m. EDT (0814 GMT).

Station commander Oleg Kononenko of Russia, NASA's Don Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers are heading home after their tour-of-duty as part of Expeditions 30 and 31.

The trio will say their farewells to the station's other residents -- the new Expedition 32 commander Gennady Padalka of Russia, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin and NASA's Joe Acaba -- then float into the Soyuz TMA-03M craft currently docked to the station's Rassvet module and close the hatchway Saturday around 9:40 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.

Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers have been living on the station since Dec. 23. Their departure continues the next rotation of crews and change of Expedition mission number.

Once the undocking happens, the station will be staffed by just Padalka, Revin and Acaba until another Russian Soyuz spacecraft launches July 14 and docks two days later, boosting the crew back to the full size of six with the addition of Russia's Yuri Malenchenko, Suni Williams of NASA, Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Sunday's Soyuz departure activities begin when the command to open hooks and latches firmly holding the capsule to its docking port is sent at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT). Physical separation between the two craft occurs three minutes later at 12:48 a.m.

After moving a short distance from the station, the Soyuz engines will fire for 15 seconds to begin propelling the craft out of the orbiting lab's vicinity.

The capsule's modernized autopilot avionics will undergo a brief test before the final separation burn occurs at 12:58 a.m.

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 3:19:15 a.m. EDT (0719:15 GMT) that slows the ship by 258 miles per hour, just enough to slip out of orbit for the return to Earth. The burn will last 4 minutes and 16 seconds.

Shortly before reaching the top of the atmosphere, the Soyuz's three distinct modules will separate at 3:47:40 a.m. EDT (0747:40 GMT). 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 3:51:01 a.m. EDT (0751:01 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 24 miles, as they feel the tug of Earth's gravity for the first time since launch.

At 3:59:48 a.m. (0759:48 GMT), the onboard computers will start a commanded sequence for deployment of the capsule's parachutes at an altitude of about 6.7 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 4:14:38 a.m. EST (0814:38 GMT) on the steppes of Kazakhstan. The target landing spot is 47.18 degrees North latitude and 69.34 degrees East longitude. The mission concludes with a duration of 192 days, 18 hours and 58 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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