After spending 143 days in space, Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford, KF5GPP, Russian Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and Russian Flight Engineer Evgeny Tarelkin (both of the Russian Federal Space Agency) will begin their voyage home to Earth on Thursday, March 14, marking the end of Expedition 34 on board the International Space Station (ISS). The trio will undock their Soyuz spacecraft at 8:30 PM EDT (0030 UTC on Friday, March 15) for the flight home. They are scheduled to arrive in Arkalyk, Kazakhstan almost four hours later at 11:57 PM EDT (0357 UTC on Friday, March 15).

NASA will televise the farewell ceremony, as well as the undocking of the Soyuz craft, its launch and its landing in Kazakhstan live on NASA TV. When the Soyuz undocks, Expedition 35 will begin aboard the ISS under the command of Chris Hadfield, VA3OOG/KC5RNJ, of the Canadian Space Agency. Hadfield will be the first Canadian commander. He and his crewmates -- NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, KE5HOC, and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko -- will tend to the station for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, KF5KDR, and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, and Alexander Misurkin. Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko are scheduled to return to Earth in May 2013.

NASA TV’s scheduled coverage is as follows:

Wednesday, March 13

• 5:10 PM EDT (2100 UTC) -- Expedition 34/35 change of command ceremony.

Thursday, March 14

• 4:45 PM EDT (2045 UTC) -- Farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure at 5:15 PM EDT [2115 UTC]).
• 8:15 PM EDT (0015 UTC on Friday, March 15) -- Undocking and departure (undocking at 8:30 PM EDT [0030 UTC on Friday, March 15]).
• 10:45 PM EDT [0245 UTC on Friday, March 15) -- Deorbit burn and landing (burn at 11:04 PM EDT [0156 UTC on Friday, March 15]; landing at 11:57 PM EDT [0253 UTC on Friday, March 15]).

Friday, March 15

• 2 AM EDT (0600 UTC) -- Video file of landing and post-landing activities.
• 2 PM EDT (1800 UTC0 -- Video File of post-landing activities and interviews.

You can watch live online on the NASA TV Public and Media channels, or on your television. Contact your local provider for the NASA TV channel in your area.