Scott Kelly's descent from International Space Station begins; NASA airs it live!

The hatchet of the International Space Station was closed at 4:43 pm EST, marking Scott Kelly's final goodbye to the space station that was his home for the past 340 days.

Zee Media Bureau/Udita Madan

New Delhi: NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov will descend down to Earth after spending a year in space as residents of the International Space Station.

The procedure has begun and NASA is airing it live, beginning from boarding the Soyuz spacecraft to the undocking to entering the Earth's atmosphere and finally the astronauts' landing.

The hatchet of the International Space Station was closed at 4:43 pm EST, marking Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko's final goodbye to the space station that was their home for the past 340 days.

Now, the Soyuz spacecraft is ready to undock and take off for planet Earth. 

The first burn takes place for the physical separation.

The undocking took place successfully at 8:02 pm. The Soyuz spacecraft is carrying three crew members - Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov.

Below is the schedule for the landing events, as per NASA:

The de-orbit burn gets underway at 9:32 pm CST, 50 minutes away from Soyuz spacecraft landing.

The landing coverage will take place at 10:15 pm EST and the three crew members will land in Kazakhstan.

To watch the entire event live, click on the link below!

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html