Technology is cool. Really cool. Right now, I'm watching a live stream of a screen in a room in Russia, where in about an hour, a spacecraft will land. With people on it who have been up for months. The more you think about that, the more mind boggling it is. They've been around the globe, in space, thousands of times. In a habitat built by a multitude of nations, that is hundreds of meters long. It's surreal to think about. Up on the screen pops a man floating inside the space station. That's coming live from hundreds of kilometers over the earth. It's hard to believe. And some don't. But the amount of footage, science, and facts we have from inner and outer space is amazing.
Now they're speaking with crews on the ground, while moving hundreds of meters per second, through the atmosphere. They'll stay in semi-constant contact with crews until they hit the ground at 7.3 meters per second, somewhere in central Kazakhstan. In seconds, several circling helicopters will arrive and pick them up, placing them on stretchers: They haven't experienced gravity in months. They will be unable to walk unassisted for a few days of rehab. From this stretcher pick-up, they will be flown to an intermediate base and medical tent, where they will be checked by doctors. After this, they will be cleared to return to their native countries. Roman Romanenkow will go to Russia, Tom Marshburn to the United States, and Chris Hadfield will return to Canada.
There's 35 minutes to landing, and 10 minutes until they disconnect the non-essential parts of the craft. Communications are about to be picked up by a circling plane, which is also pretty neat. But anyhow, I'm going to go watch this stuff. Goodnight!
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