Three space station fliers wrap up 165-day stay in orbit

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, left, Soyuz TMA-13M commander Maxim Suraev, center, and flight engineer Reid Wiseman review procedures in the cramped Soyuz descent module during training. The trio planned to undock from the space station and return to Earth Sunday evening U.S. time. MASA

Last Updated Nov 9, 2014 7:55 PM EST

A veteran cosmonaut, a German volcanologist and a Navy test pilot-turned-astronaut whose mastery of social media earned him -- and NASA -- a global following, bid their space station crewmates farewell, strapped into their Soyuz ferry craft and undocked Sunday, setting the stage for a fiery trip back to landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 165-day stay in orbit.

Freezing weather in Kustanai, Kazakhstan, where recovery crews were staged prevented an on-time departure for four helicopters carrying Russian personnel, but flight controllers near Moscow cleared the crew to undock on schedule. The forecast for landing called for low clouds and temperatures around 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

Soyuz TMA-13M commander Maxim Suraev, flanked on the right by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and on the left by NASA's Reid Wiseman, the flight engineer, undocked from the Russian Rassvet module at 7:31 p.m. EST (GMT-5) Sunday and backed away as the two spacecraft sailed 260 miles above north China. Monitoring the departure from inside the lab complex were Expedition 42 commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova.

"Don't be sad. Your home is waiting for you," a flight controller radioed. A few moments later, someone passed along "congratulations on a successful undocking" and a few moments after that, a quick weather report: "The weather's quite lousy ... at the landing site. But the condtions are favorable."

After moving a safe distance away, Suraev planned to monitor a four-minute 41-second rocket firing starting at 10:05 p.m. to slow the ship by about 286 mph, just enough to lower the far side of the orbit deep into the atmosphere. After a half-hour free fall, the three modules making up the Soyuz spacecraft will separate and the crew, strapped into the central descent module, will plunge back into the discernible atmosphere around 10:35 p.m. at an altitude of 63 miles.

Using atmospheric friction to slow down, the descent module will reach an altitude of just under 7 miles at 10:44 p.m. when the main parachute will deploy. Touchdown on the steppe of Kazakhstan northeast of Arkalyk is expected at 10:58:34 p.m. (9:58 a.m. Monday local time).

Russian recovery crews, flight surgeons and officials with NASA and ESA were expected to reach the landing site shortly after touchdown to help the returning station fliers out of the cramped descent module after nearly five-and-a-half months in the weightless environment of space. During the course of their 165-day eight-hour mission, the crew completed some 2,640 orbits covering more than 70 million miles.

"I'm looking forward to experiencing it," Wiseman said of re-entry aboard the Soyuz. "Everyone I've talked to says it's the world's greatest roller coaster ride, and I think nothing can mentally prepare me for this except going through it. So let's just go though it and then I'm sure I'll have some great stories on the other side to share with you."

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Three space station fliers wrap up 165-day stay in orbit