--- ---  # Watch 3 Astronauts Return Home from the Space Station ## Video: A Year in Space: The Mission [Watch (HLS stream): A Year in Space: The Mission](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gEqrnCPI.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2015-03-24. On March 28, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly begins a historic year in Space. Time follows Kelly and his twin brother, Mark, as they work the test the boundaries of long-term space travel._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jun 11, 2015 1:00 PM UTC  NASA astronaut Terry Virts (left) Commander of Expedition 43 on the International Space Station along with crewmates Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (center) and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on May 6, 2015 perform a checkout of their Russian Soyuz spacesuits in preparation for the journey back to Earth. NASA astronaut Terry Virts (left) Commander of Expedition 43 on the International Space Station along with crewmates Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (center) and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on May 6, 2015 perform a checkout of their Russian Soyuz spacesuits in preparation for the journey back to Earth.NASA  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jun 11, 2015 1:00 PM UTC The Soyuz spacecraft will get you home, but that doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy the ride. The journey takes over three hours from the time you separate from the International Space Station until the time you thump down in Kazakhstan—and none of it feels like first class travel. First comes the separation from the station and a four-min., 21-sec. engine burn that will steadily lower your altitude and send you slamming into the atmosphere 76 mi. (121 km) above ground. Then, your spacecraft will be surrounded by a fireball as you plunge toward the ground, a storm that will abate only when you reach heavier, thicker air and your parachutes open, decelerating you suddenly and violently. But there’s no ocean splashdown here. You’ll hit the Kazakh soil hard, and while braking rockets will fire to cushion the impact, you won’t much notice their effect. Station astronaut Scott Kelly compares the experience to “going over Niagara Falls in a barrel—that’s on fire.” That adventure is what space station crew-members Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti experienced on June 11\. Watch above as the trio’s 199 days in space came to an end with a wild ride home. _Read next:_ [_How Vaccines in Space Can Help on Earth_](http://time.com/3915799/vaccines-space-kelly-brothers/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article) LIVE: Watch 3 Space Station Astronauts Return From to Earth ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3916105/space-station-astronauts-soyuz-kazakhstan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3916105/space-station-astronauts-soyuz-kazakhstan/"},"headline":"Watch 3 Astronauts Return Home from the Space Station","datePublished":"2015-06-11T13:00:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:57.589Z","description":"Crew-members Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti will land in Kazakhstan on June 11","url":"https://time.com/3916105/space-station-astronauts-soyuz-kazakhstan/","keywords":["A Year In Space","Space","NASA","astronauts","international space station","Space Exploration","esa"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta971de58864b5926/698853e9cd1bba29176fbbef/international-space-station-astronauts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta971de58864b5926/698853e9cd1bba29176fbbef/international-space-station-astronauts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"international space station nasa astronauts","caption":"international space station nasa astronauts","creditText":"NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/a-year-in-space/","name":"A Year In Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3916105/space-station-astronauts-soyuz-kazakhstan/","name":"Watch 3 Astronauts Return Home from the Space Station"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Year in Space: The Mission","description":"On March 28, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly begins a historic year in Space. 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