Three Astronauts To Land Safely Back On Earth From ISS [VIDEO]

Three astronauts are expected to safely land on Earth after staying 172 days in space. The team includes astronaut Jeff Williams, who was broke the record for the longest cumulative stay in space summing up to 534 days across his four missions. It was famous astronaut Scott Kelly who holds the previous record for spending 522 days in space.

William's record is now considered as a big spaceflight record as reported by The Verge. But Scott Kelly's main mission showed that the effect of his year in space made him age slower than his twin brother Mark Kelly. Alongside Williams are Russian astronauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin who also spent their days in space and are excited to be back to the ground. But first, they will have to make the three-hour trip back to Earth riding the Russian Soyuz capsule.

The astronauts will be aboard the Soyuz spacecraft that will land at exactly 9:14 p.m. EDT tonight, September 7 in Kazakhstan. Excited viewers can watch the de-orbiting burn off the craft at 8:21 p.m. as reported by Gizmodo.

During Jeff William's time in the ISS, he participated in two big spacewalks recently. First was on August 16 where he and astronaut Kate Rubins installed NASA's new international docking adapter project. The adapter will serve as a commercial spacecraft parking space that automatically docks with the ISS. And the second was last September 1 when he and Rubins did some major cleanup outside the station. The cleanup was made by "retracting an out-of-use thermal radiator and installing a new external HD camera."

The trio said goodbye to their remaining crewmates, Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency around 2:15 p.m. EDT. The remaining trio will have to endure lessened company since the next arriving crew of three is set to arrive on September 23.