Watch three astronauts leave the International Space Station tonight

Tonight, three astronauts onboard the International Space Station will load into a Russian Soyuz capsule, beginning their nearly seven-hour journey back home to Earth. The returning crew is an international bunch, including NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, British astronaut Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. The trio will board the Soyuz after 10:15PM ET and then undock from the ISS around 1:52AM ET. "The astronauts are finishing up a 186-day stay in space" After that, the Soyuz will remain in orbit until about 4:21AM ET. That’s when the vehicle ignites its engines, taking the Soyuz out of Earth’s orbit. This "deorbit burn" initiates the spacecraft’s descent through the atmosphere, eventually reaching a speed of 755 feet per second. More

(Source: The Verge - Jun 18)