Astronaut Tim Peake Prepares For Return-To-Earth From ISS, Looks Forward To Rain

British astronaut Timothy (Tim) Peake will complete his 186 day stint at the International Space Station (ISS) this week. The Expedition 46/47 crew member will make his return journey to the Earth on the Soyuz TMA-19M capsule which is docked to the ISS.  

Peake will reportedly makes his descent to Kazakhstan along with co-astronauts Tim Kopra and Yuri Malenchenko in a journey that will take a few hours, and the landing on the Earth's surface is scheduled to be at 10:12 BST. The three crew members had also made the journey to the space station together on 15 December 2015. Incidentally, the astronauts were supposed to return to Earth in the beginning of June; however the scheduled journey was delayed due to the postponed launch of the replacement crew's spacecraft. The ISS usually hosts six astronauts at a time, and three new members take place of the returning trio.

Once he is back on the surface of our planet, Peake will be a part of an extensive program to accustom him to live in gravity once more. Usually, astronauts get used to the microgravity of space and hence dropping pens or cups after they are done with them is no big deal, as these objects keep on floating in space. However, it is a different ball game once an astronaut steps back on Earth, having become habituated to their life in zero gravity, and this is the least of all the problems. Astronauts usually suffer Entry Motion Sickness (EMS), ultra sensitive skin and low blood pressure once they land back on Earth, with symptoms like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, pallor sweating and headache. Readaptation to the Earth's gravity takes anywhere between six weeks to three years for astronauts, and speaking also becomes somewhat of a struggle as the lips and tongues become used to talking in weightlessness. There can also be other long term consequences on health, like losing bone mass and artery stiffness.

During his time on-board the orbiting space laboratory, Peake has made contributions to numerous science experiments, ran the London marathon on a treadmill, carried out a spacewalk to repair the ISS, and also reached out to millions of school going children with educational activities. For now, the astronaut is looking forward to rain. "This is going to sound truly remarkable but I most miss the rain," said Tim Peake. "Perhaps that's because I haven't had a shower for six months. The feeling of nice cold drizzle on my face right now actually sounds blissful."