The two crews aboard the International Space Station are set to go their separate ways, as Expedition 18 prepares to return to Earth early Wednesday.
After a farewell ceremony with the Expedition 19 crew, the departing Expedition 18 crew members, Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, will board their Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft and close the hatches around 8:45 p.m. EDT tonight.
The Soyuz is scheduled to undock from the station at 11:52 p.m. for a landing in Kazakhstan at 3:16 a.m. Wednesday. Russian recovery teams and NASA personnel are prepared to reach the crew by helicopter shortly afterwards, even in the event of ballistic landing.
Joining Expedition 18 for the ride home will be spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, who arrived at the station with the Expedition 19 crew on March 28.
NASA TV will provide live coverage throughout tonight's activities beginning at 8:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Expedition 19 crew, Commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Mike Barratt and Koichi Wakata, will work Tuesday on science experiments and assist with Soyuz departure activities, including monitoring telemetry from the Soyuz during descent.
The crew also has time set aside for Earth observation and photography. The targets for Tuesday include the Redoubt volcano in Alaska, which produced seven powerful ash explosions on Saturday, with plumes rising up to 50,000 feet.
