{"id":14129,"date":"2017-12-13T19:36:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T11:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/space-station-crew-returns-thursday-replacements-launch-sunday\/"},"modified":"2017-12-13T19:36:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T11:36:48","slug":"space-station-crew-returns-thursday-replacements-launch-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/space-station-crew-returns-thursday-replacements-launch-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Space station crew returns Thursday, replacements launch Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
European astronaut Paolo Nespoli, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy and Expedition 53 commander Randy Bresnik donned their Sokol spacesuits last week to rehearse undocking and landing procedures. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a rapid-fire crew rotation, a Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut and an Italian flier plan to close out a 139-day mission aboard the International Space Station with a fiery plunge back to the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan aboard their Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft early Thursday.<\/p>\n

Three days later \u2014 early Sunday morning U.S. time \u2014 three fresh crew members are scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome a few hundred miles away, kicking off a two-day rendezvous.<\/p>\n

If all goes well, Soyuz MS-07 commander Anton Shkaplerov, NASA flight engineer Scott Tingle and Japanese physician-astronaut Norishige Kanai will reach the outpost early Tuesday, joining Expedition 54 commander Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba.<\/p>\n

To clear the way for the upcoming launch, three current crew members \u2014 Soyuz MS-05 commander Sergey Ryazanskiy, NASA flight engineer Randy Bresnik and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli \u2014 plan to undock from the station\u2019s Earth-facing Rassvet module at 12:14 a.m. EST (GMT-5) Thursday.<\/p>\n

With Ryazanskiy at the controls in the descent module\u2019s center seat, flanked on the left by Bresnik and on the right by Nespoli, the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft will move a few miles away before firing its braking rockets at 2:44 a.m., slowing the ship by 286 mph and dropping the low-point of the ship\u2019s orbit deep into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

After a half-hour free fall, the Soyuz\u2019s central crew module, still moving at nearly five miles per second, will slam into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of about 62 miles, rapidly heating up and slowing down for a parachute and rocket-assisted touchdown near the town of Dzezkazgan at 3:38 a.m.<\/p>\n

Forecasters are predicting several inches of snow with winds gusting about 20 mph and temperatures near zero at the landing site.<\/p>\n

Russian recovery crews, including NASA flight surgeons and other personnel, will be deployed nearby to help the returning astronauts out of the cramped descent module as they begin re-adjusting to gravity \u2014 and cold winter weather \u2014 after nearly five months in the climate controlled, weightless environment of the space station.<\/p>\n

\"\"
European astronaut Paolo Nespoli, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy and Expedition 53 commander Randy Bresnik donned their Sokol spacesuits last week to rehearse undocking and landing procedures. They are pictured here inside the cramped Soyuz MS-05 landing craft. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After quick medical checks and satellite phone calls home to friends and family, all three will be flown by helicopter to Karaganda. From there, Ryazanskiy will fly back to Star City near Moscow while Bresnik and Nespoli board a NASA jet for the long flight back to Houston for more medical checks and debriefing.<\/p>\n

Assuming an on-time touchdown, Ryazanskiy, Bresnik and Nespoli will have logged 138 days 16 hours and 57 minutes off planet since their launch from Baikonur on July 28, completing 2,224 orbits while traveling some 59 million miles.<\/p>\n

Ryazanskiy\u2019s total time in space will span 306 days over two flights, Bresnik\u2019s total, including an earlier shuttle flight, will stand at 150 days while Nespoli\u2019s mark will stand at 313 days over three space flights.<\/p>\n

During their time aloft, the crew welcomed four cargo ships and one Soyuz. Ryazanskiy participated in a seven-hour 34-minute spacewalk while Bresnik participated in three U.S. EVAs totaling 20 hours and 10 minutes in the vacuum of space.<\/p>\n

And they marked the 60th anniversary of the launch of the Russian Sputnik, the world\u2019s first artificial satellite.<\/p>\n

\u201cSixty years ago, human beings looked up to the sky and beyond the realm of balloons and airplanes, now we had satellites,\u201d Bresnik said. \u201cSince then, look at what human beings have done. \u2026 The entirety of what we\u2019ve accomplished as human beings in just those short 60 years is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Space Station, which weighs nearly a million pounds and stretches the length of a football field will be remembered \u201cas the greatest technological achievement in the history of human kind to this point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we did it together as an international team is what makes the difference. If we could use the International Space Station and the cooperation between all the different countries and agencies and teams as an example of the way to operate around the world, maybe the world would be a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Soyuz MS-05 crew back on the ground, the Russians will turn their attention to readying the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft for launch from Baikonur early Sunday U.S. time.<\/p>\n

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Three days after Ryazanskiy and his crewmates depart the station, three fresh crew members will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. From left to right: Japanese physician-astronaut Norishige Kanai, Soyuz MS-07 commander Anton Shkaplerov and NASA flight engineer Scott Tingle. Credit: Andrey Shelepin\/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Russians normally like to separate a landing and the next launch by a week to 10 days and the Soyuz MS-07 launch originally was planned for Dec. 27, a date that would have allowed the crew to reach the station a few hours after launch. But Russian managers moved it up to Sunday to avoid end-of-year holiday conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Dec. 25 is a big holiday, it\u2019s Christmas in the U.S. and pretty much all of Europe, people want to spend time with their families, recently they moved our launch date to the left by 10 days,\u201d said Shkaplerov, the vehicle commander.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo as an exception in our case, for that launch date, the ballistic numbers do not align for us to have a short rendezvous profile. So we\u2019ll spend two days flying to the ISS. But we do not mind, because that increases our increment duration by 10 days!\u201d<\/p>\n

Launch is targeted for 2:21 a.m. EST (1:21 p.m. local time) from the same pad used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age. As commander, Shkaplerov will be strapped in the center seat, flanked on the left by Tingle, serving as the flight engineer, and on the right by Kanai.<\/p>\n

A veteran Navy test pilot, Tingle will serve as co-pilot during launch and landing. As such, he has to know how to fly the craft on his own in an emergency \u2014 a tall order when training in a second language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things you have to train for, and speaking the language is critical,\u201d Tingle said in an interview. \u201cAnd while I have worked extremely hard on learning the language as much as we can, it\u2019s very hard for me. \u2026 It was a huge load to learn the academics, to get through all the exams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotta tell you, I would not have made it had it not been for Anton Shkaplerov, who was absolutely a brilliant commander and meets me halfway when he has to. He pushes me to make it as far as I can and then when he sees it starting to break down he\u2019ll step in and meet me halfway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a big testament to the Russian-American partnership and how we can understand each other and how we can work together to make these missions happen,\u201d Tingle said. \u201cThey do this all the time, and they\u2019re really good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shkaplerov is a veteran of two previous station flights totaling 365 days. Tingle and Kanai are making their first flights. Tingle called Kanai \u2014 nickname Nemo \u2014 \u201ca great friend\u201d and \u201cincredibly smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNemo \u2026 has a great future in the space exploration program,\u201d Shkaplerov said. \u201cThe first time we met, he spoke neither Russian nor English, and several months later I saw him sitting at a desk and listening to instructors without interpretation. It emphasizes what kind of a hard-working person he is. If he\u2019s studying something, you can be sure he\u2019s going to study everything to the very last bolt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to the space station\u2019s location at launch time Sunday, the Soyuz MS-07 crew will fly a 34-orbit rendezvous, catching up with the outpost early Tuesday and docking, at 3:43 a.m., at the same Rassvet port vacated by the Ryazanskiy\u2019s crew three days earlier. They will be welcomed aboard by Expedition 54 commander Misurkin, Vande Hei and Acaba.<\/p>\n

For Tingle, getting to carry out research in space is the main objective.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt any given time, there\u2019s on the order of 250 experiments that are happening on board space station,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very busy laboratory. Some of the specific human research that I\u2019ll be working on includes a look at the spine. When we get in space our spines extend a little bit, and so we\u2019re trying to see what the big impacts are.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also take a lot of blood, a lot of urine, a lot of fluids to try to see what\u2019s going on within humans when they get into space.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also will take part in an experiment to remotely control a robot in Germany from his perch aboard the space station.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one experiment I\u2019m really looking forward to is operating the robot named Justin in Munich,\u201d Tingle said. \u201cThis program is set up to simulate operating a robot on the Mars surface as our space vehicle is orbiting Mars so that we can explore before we actually put boots on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ll be trying to control a robot in Munich with a controller up on the International Space Station to simulate that entire process. I think that\u2019s some really cool operational research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with a full slate of experiments, two spacewalks are planned Jan. 23 and 27 to continue ongoing work to replace the grapple-like \u201chand\u201d on one end of the station\u2019s robot arm. A Russian Progress cargo ship is set to arrive Feb. 11 and the Soyuz MS-06 crew \u2014 Misurkin, Vande Hei and Acaba \u2014 plan to return to Earth Feb. 27.<\/p>\n

Shkaplerov will take over from Misurkin as space station commander and will welcome three fresh crew members aboard \u2014 Oleg Artemyev, Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold \u2014 when their Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft arrives March 10.<\/p>\n

Three days later, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is scheduled to arrive and on April 18, Shkaplerov, Tingle and Kanai are expected to return to Earth to close out a 122-day stay in space.<\/p>\n

And the crew rotations will continue. All told in 2018, three Russian Progress cargo ships are scheduled for launch, three SpaceX Dragon supply ships and two Orbital ATK Cygnus space freighters.<\/p>\n

Four Soyuz crew ships are scheduled for launch and, if all goes well, SpaceX and Boeing will launch their new commercial crew ferry ships on test flights, including two with astronaut crews on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch will be ongoing hot and heavy,\u201d Kirk Shireman, space station program manager, told reporters looking ahead to 2018. \u201cWe have two spacewalks planned for January \u2026 we have three Progresses, four Soyuzes, we have a number of SpaceX Dragon and Cygnus flights and in addition, we\u2019ll be preparing on orbit for commercial crew flights.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo really, 2018 (is) a very pivotal year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION European astronaut Paolo Nespoli, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy and Expedition 53 commander Randy Bresnik donned their Sokol spacesuits last week to rehearse undocking and landing procedures. Credit: NASA In a rapid-fire crew rotation, a Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut and an Italian flier plan to close out a […]<\/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":[1723,1601,831,3101,3023,1545,717,2188],"class_list":["post-14129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-anton-shkaplerov","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-european-space-agency","tag-expedition-53","tag-expedition-54","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-italy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14129"}],"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=14129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}