Samantha is coming home!

Samantha, Terry and Anton

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10 June 2015

After spending 200 days in space, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is coming back to Earth on 11 June. She will be accompanied by NASA astronaut Terry Virts and Soyuz commander Anton Shkaplerov.

Once the three astronauts close the hatch to their Soyuz spacecraft and leave the ISS it will take them just over 200 minutes to come back to Earth. Their expected landing time in the Kazakhstan fields is 13:54 GMT.

Samantha has set a new duration record for ESA astronauts. Whereas NASA astronaut Sunita Williams spent 195 days in space in 2007, Samantha will end up beating that stay by 5 days!

Soyuz undocking, reentry and landing explained

Samantha's Futura mission was extended following an unexpected delay after Russia's Progress 59 freighter failed to arrive at the Station.

The extra weeks spent in space were a busy time for the astronauts living on the Space Station. Samantha installed a new water pump in the Columbus laboratory, helped move a complete module to another location, and upgrated a video recording system.

Follow Samantha's journey with her personal logbook and image galleries here: samanthacristoforetti.esa.int

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