Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, now the arena’s maximum skilled spaceman, first-time flier Nikolai Chub and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson undocked from the World House Station and returned to Earth on Monday, ultimate out a record-setting project with a picture-perfect touchdown in Kazakhstan.
With the Soyuz staff again house, NASA and SpaceX are gearing as much as release astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov to the station aboard a Team Dragon pill on Thursday, climate allowing. Liftoff from pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral House Drive Station is concentrated for two:05 p.m. EDT.
NASA/Roscosmos
Hague and Gorbunov plan to sign up for Starliner astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams aboard the lab, together with newly-arrived cosmonauts Alexsey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and NASA’s Donald Pettit.
4 different station staff participants — Team 8 commander Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin — are nearing the top of their very own six-month excursion of responsibility and plan to go back to Earth aboard any other Team Dragon spacecraft in early October.
However first, the Russians had to convey Kononenko, Chub and Dyson again to Earth after a marathon project.
The Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft undocked from the station at 4:36 a.m. EDT Monday. Plunging again into the discernible setting alongside a southwest-to-northeast trajectory, the spacecraft descended thru a cloudless blue sky below a big red-and-white parachute, touching down at the steppe of Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. native time).
Russian restoration crews and flight surgeons, together with NASA enhance staff, have been at the scene inside mins to lend a hand the returning station fliers out of the cramped Soyuz descent module for preliminary clinical tests and satellite tv for pc telephone calls house to friends and family.
With touchdown in Kazakhstan, Dyson logged 184 days in orbit since release closing March 23. Kononenko and Chub, introduced aboard a distinct Soyuz closing Sept. 15, put in additional than a complete 12 months in area — 374 days — the longest keep but aboard the World House Station.
Together with 4 previous journeys to the lab, Kononenko’s cumulative time in area now totals 1,111 days, 233 days greater than the 878-day mark set via the former listing holder, cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.
NASA/Roscosmos
All station fliers workout widely, each day, to handle muscle tissues and bone density within the weightless surroundings of area. However returning long-duration fliers in most cases want a number of weeks to completely re-adapt to the consequences of gravity.
Even so, all 3 Soyuz staff participants gave the impression wholesome, flashing large smiles after being pulled from the descent module and carried to within reach recliners. Dyson, who flew to the station with a distinct staff closing March, used to be introduced with a bouquet of plants via her former commander, Oleg Novitskiy, a lot to her evident wonder and pleasure.
All through a change-of-command rite Sunday, Kononenko, the outgoing station commander, became the outpost over to Williams, who arrived on the lab June 6 aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. She served as commander of the ISS the closing time she used to be aboard the lab in 2012.
Williams and Wilmore are spending an surprising eight-and-a-half months aboard the station on account of helium leaks and thruster problems that triggered NASA to convey the Boeing spacecraft again to Earth on Sept. 7 with out its staff.
“Expedition 71 has taught all people so much about flexibility,” Williams instructed her crewmates, relating to the Starliner and its have an effect on on station operations. “You followed Butch and I even if that used to be no longer somewhat the plan. However right here we’re as a part of the circle of relatives. … We respect it.”
To Kononenko, she stated “Oleg, we will omit your loads of reports across the dinner desk. However I assume that is what you get for having over 1,000 days in area, you get the ones tales, proper?”
NASA
She instructed Chub the station staff will “omit your precision, your professionalism, however I assume that is what you get whilst you join your rookie flight (for) over a 12 months in area. And Tracy, we are going to omit your … group, and your talent to make order out of chaos. So we thanks, all 3 of you, for that.”
The addition of the Starliner’s staff to the distance station roster threw a wrench right into a in moderation orchestrated collection of deliberate Soyuz and SpaceX Team Dragon flights to and from the station meant to interchange the lab’s seven full-time staff participants.
NASA at the start meant to begin the newest staff rotation via launching the following Team Dragon flight in August, sending Team 9 commander Zena Cardman, Stephanie Wilson, Hague and Gorbunov to the lab to interchange Dominick and his crewmates.
However the Team 9 flight used to be held up, and the Team 8 project prolonged, whilst NASA managers debated whether or not Boeing’s Starliner pill, introduced June 5 at the send’s first piloted take a look at flight, may just safely convey Wilmore and Williams house.
Taking part in it protected, company managers determined on Aug. 24 to stay the Starliner astronauts on board the station for a longer keep and to convey the Boeing spacecraft again to Earth via faraway keep an eye on. That left the Team Dragon as the one send to be had to take Wilmore and Williams again to Earth.
To disencumber two seats for the Starliner staff, NASA bumped Cardman and Wilson from the Team 9 roster. Within the interim, 4 days after the Starliner’s unpiloted go back to Earth on Sept. 7, the Russians introduced Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit to interchange Kononenko, Chub and Dyson.
Hague and Gorbunov at the moment are scheduled for release Thursday afternoon from the Cape Canaveral House Drive Station. The 4 Team 8 fliers — Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin — plan to go back to Earth round Oct. 4.
Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams at the moment are anticipated to come back house round Feb. 22 aboard the Team 9 Dragon.
