Expedition 28 Crew
(From right) Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Ron Garan. Nasa.gov

Three NASA astronauts will be returning to Earth Friday after spending more than five months on the International Space Station (ISS).

The return of Expedition 28 Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev, Flight Engineer Ron Garan and off-going Station Commander Andrey Borisenko will be telecast by the NASA television.

The three astronauts will land in Kazakhstan at around 12:01 am Friday.

Borisenko will hand over the command of the station, which measures 357 feet end-to-end, about the length of a U.S. football field including the end zones, to his fellow crew member Michael Fossum at 5.40 pm Wednesday. This ceremony will also be televised on NASA TV.

Current Flight Engineer Mike Fossum will be leading Expedition 29 with flight engineers Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa.

The station crew continued tracking tropical storm Maria as well as photographing wildfires near Houston and Bastrop, Texas, during their stay on the ISS.

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