Live Coverage: Scott Kelly Crew Headed Home

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are scheduled to climb into their Soyuz spacecraft at the International Space Station tonight in advance of return to Earth early Wednesday.

Outgoing station skipper Scott Kelly and two Russian flight engineers -- Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka -- are scheduled to close the hatches between their Soyuz spacecraft and the outpost after a farewell ceremony at 9:20 p.m. tonight. We'll have live coverage here in The Flame Trench starting at 8:45 p.m.

Check out the full story about the station departure HERE.

We'll have live coverage throughout the night and the early morning hours. Click HERE to launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage.

The timeline calls for the Soyuz to depart the station at 12:27 a.m. Wednesday. A thruster firing at 2:57 a.m. Wednesday that will send Kelly and his crew toward a 3:48 a.m. landing on the central steppes of Kazakhstan.

Stiff winds, a chance of snow and temperatures in the teens await the astronaut and cosmonauts.