Soyuz MS-17 departs Station for return to Kazakh steppe
April 16, 2021
After more than six months in orbit, the Soyuz MS-17 mission is drawing to a close. The craft departed the International Space Station with undocking right on time at 21:34 EDT on Friday, 16 April (01:34 UTC on Saturday, 17 April).
Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and Kate Rubins will now spend the next orbit and a half of Earth making final preparations for landing. The deorbit burn is scheduled for 00:01 EDT / 04:01 UTC on Saturday, 17 April followed by a landing near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 00:56 EDT / 01:56 UTC.
Undocking to deorbit timeline
Once physical separation was achieved from the Poisk module, springs imparted a 0.12 m/s separation velocity between the Station and Soyuz while both craft were in free-drift. Ten seconds after separation, Soyuz began active attitude control.