NASA is providing live coverage on NASA TV and its website of the undocking at 12:50 a.m. EST and departure from the International Space Station of the Soyuz spacecraft that will return record-setting astronauts Christina Koch of NASA, Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), and Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos to Earth in the early hours of Thursday, Feb. 6.
Koch’s first journey into space spanned 328 days since her launch March 14, 2019 is the longest single spaceflight in history by a woman, the second-longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut, and places her seventh on the list of American space travelers for total time in space. She conducted six spacewalks, including the first three all-woman spacewalks with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, spending 42 hours and 15 minutes outside the station.
Completing his second mission, Parmitano now has spent 367 days in space, more than any ESA astronaut in history. During his time in space for Expeditions 60 and 61, Parmitano conducted four spacewalks totaling 25 hours and 30 minutes to complete improvements to the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in an effort to extend its life and support its mission of looking for evidence of dark matter. Parmitano was commander of Expedition 61.
Skvortsov completes his third mission and a total of 546 days in space, placing him 15th on the all-time spaceflight endurance list.
Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.