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ISS crew closes hatches to return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft

The Soyuz MS-11 is to undock from the ISS at 02:25am Moscow time on Tuesday

KOROLYOV, June 24. /TASS/. The crew of the long-term Expedition 58/59 to the International Space Station (ISS) has transferred to the manned Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft and closed the hatches for its return to the Earth, Russia’s Mission Control Center reported on Monday.

The crew of Russia’s Oleg Kononenko, NASA’s Anne McClain and Canadian Space Agency’s David Saint-Jacques "transferred to the manned Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft, closing the transfer hatches on the ISS," the MIssion Control Center said.

Aboard the Soyuz spacecraft, the Expedition’s crewmembers returning to the Earth will put on their flight suits and check the workability of the spacecraft’s systems and the hatches’ air tightens.

The Soyuz MS-11 is to undock from the ISS at 02:25am Moscow time on Tuesday.

The spacecraft is expected to land in the steppes of Kazakhstan near the city of Zhezkazgan at 05:48am Moscow time.

Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin, US astronauts Christina Koch and Nick Hague will continue their mission aboard the ISS.