{"id":10010,"date":"2024-09-23T19:52:39","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T11:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/soyuz-brings-two-cosmonauts-nasa-astronaut-back-to-earth-after-record-setting-mission\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T19:52:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T11:52:39","slug":"soyuz-brings-two-cosmonauts-nasa-astronaut-back-to-earth-after-record-setting-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/soyuz-brings-two-cosmonauts-nasa-astronaut-back-to-earth-after-record-setting-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Soyuz brings two cosmonauts, NASA astronaut back to Earth after record-setting mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Soyuz MS-25\/71S spacecraft carrying commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson undocked from the International Space Station early Monday as the two spacecraft were passing 260 miles above eastern Mongolia. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, now the world\u2019s most experienced spaceman, first-time flier Nikolai Chub and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson undocked from the International Space Station and returned to Earth Monday, closing out a record-setting mission with a picture-perfect landing in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

With the Soyuz crew back home, NASA and SpaceX are gearing up to launch astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov to the station aboard a Crew Dragon capsule on Thursday, weather permitting. Liftoff from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is targeted for 2:05 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n

Hague and Gorbunov plan to join Starliner astronauts Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore and Sunita Williams aboard the lab, along with newly-arrived cosmonauts Alexsey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and NASA\u2019s Donald Pettit.<\/p>\n

Four other station crew members \u2014 Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin \u2014 are nearing the end of their own six-month tour of duty and plan to return to Earth aboard another Crew Dragon spacecraft in early October.<\/p>\n

But first, the Russians needed to bring Kononenko, Chub and Dyson back to Earth after a marathon mission.<\/p>\n

The Soyuz MS-25\/71S spacecraft undocked from the station at 4:36 a.m. EDT Monday. Plunging back into the discernible atmosphere along a southwest-to-northeast trajectory, the spacecraft descended through a cloudless blue sky under a large red-and-white parachute, touching down on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. local time).<\/p>\n

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After a fiery plunge back into the lower atmosphere, the Soyuz crew module descended smoothly to touchdown on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT (5:59 p.m. local time). Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russian recovery crews and flight surgeons, including NASA support personnel, were on the scene within minutes to help the returning station fliers out of the cramped Soyuz descent module for initial medical checks and satellite phone calls home to family and friends.<\/p>\n

With landing in Kazakhstan, Dyson logged 184 days in orbit since launch last March 23. Kononenko and Chub, launched aboard a different Soyuz last Sept. 15, put in more than a full year in space \u2014 374 days \u2014 the longest stay yet aboard the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Including four earlier trips to the lab, Kononenko\u2019s cumulative time in space now totals 1,111 days, 233 days more than the 878-day mark set by the previous record holder, cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.<\/p>\n

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Returning to the uncomfortable tug of gravity after an ISS-record 374 days in space, Kononenko was all smiles as he was pulled from the crew cabin and then carried to a nearby recliner for routine medical checks. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All station fliers exercise extensively, on a daily basis, to maintain muscle mass and bone density in the weightless environment of space. But returning long-duration fliers typically need several weeks or more to fully re-adapt to the effects of gravity.<\/p>\n

Even so, all three Soyuz crew members appeared healthy, flashing broad smiles after being pulled from the descent module and carried to nearby recliners. Dyson, who flew to the station with a different crew last March, was presented with a bouquet of flowers by her former commander, Oleg Novitskiy, much to her obvious surprise and delight.<\/p>\n

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Oleg Novitskiy, commander of the Soyuz that carried Dyson to orbit last March, presented his former crewmate with a bouquet of flowers, much to her obvious surprise and delight. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During a change-of-command ceremony Sunday, Kononenko, the outgoing station commander, turned the outpost over to Williams, who arrived at the lab June 6 aboard Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft. She served as commander of the ISS the last time she was aboard the lab in 2012.<\/p>\n

Williams and Wilmore are spending an unexpected eight-and-a-half months aboard the station because of helium leaks and thruster issues that prompted NASA to bring the Boeing spacecraft back to Earth Sept. 7 without its crew.<\/p>\n

\u201cExpedition 71 has taught all of us a lot about flexibility,\u201d Williams told her crewmates, referring to the Starliner and its impact on station operations. \u201cYou adopted Butch and I even though that was not quite the plan. But here we are as part of the family. \u2026 We appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Kononenko, she said \u201cOleg, we\u2019ll miss your hundreds of stories around the dinner table. But I guess that\u2019s what you get for having over 1,000 days in space, you get those stories, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

She told Chub the station crew will \u201cmiss your precision, your professionalism, but I guess that\u2019s what you get when you sign up for your rookie flight (for) over a year in space. And Tracy, we\u2019re going to miss your \u2026 organization, and your ability to make order out of chaos. So we thank you, all three of you, for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The addition of the Starliner\u2019s crew to the space station roster threw a wrench into a carefully orchestrated sequence of planned Soyuz and SpaceX Crew Dragon flights to and from the station intended to replace the lab\u2019s seven full-time crew members.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The official portrait of the International Space Station\u2019s Expedition 72 crew. At the top (from left) are, Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin, NASA astronaut and space station Commander Suni Williams, and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore. In the middle row are, Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Don Pettit. In the bottom row are, Roscosmos cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov and NASA astronaut and Flight Engineer Nick Hague. Image: NASA\/Bill Stafford and Robert Markowitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA originally intended to start the latest crew rotation by launching the next Crew Dragon flight in August, sending Crew 9 commander Zena Cardman, Stephanie Wilson, Hague and Gorbunov to the lab to replace Dominick and his crewmates.<\/p>\n

But the Crew 9 flight was held up, and the Crew 8 mission extended, while NASA managers debated whether Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsule, launched June 5 on the ship\u2019s first piloted test flight, could safely bring Wilmore and Williams home.<\/p>\n

Playing it safe, agency managers decided on Aug. 24 to keep the Starliner astronauts on board the station for an extended stay and to bring the Boeing spacecraft back to Earth by remote control. That left the Crew Dragon as the only ship available to take Wilmore and Williams back to Earth.<\/p>\n

To free up two seats for the Starliner crew, NASA bumped Cardman and Wilson from the Crew 9 roster. In the meantime, four days after the Starliner\u2019s unpiloted return to Earth on Sept. 7, the Russians launched Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit to replace Kononenko, Chub and Dyson.<\/p>\n

Hague and Gorbunov are now scheduled for launch Thursday afternoon from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The four Crew 8 fliers \u2014 Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin \u2014 plan to return to Earth around Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams are now expected to come home around Feb. 22 aboard the Crew 9 Dragon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Soyuz MS-25\/71S spacecraft carrying commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson undocked from the International Space Station early Monday as the two spacecraft were passing 260 miles above eastern Mongolia. Image: NASA Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, now the world\u2019s most experienced spaceman, first-time flier Nikolai Chub and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson undocked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[717,1290,1291,1292,1293],"class_list":["post-10010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-international-space-station","tag-nikolai-chub","tag-oleg-kononenko","tag-soyuz-ms-25","tag-tracy-dyson"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}