At 07:21 UTC on March 30, Soyuz MS-19 undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and subsequently landed on the Kazakh Steppe at 11:29 UTC. This concludes a five-month mission for the spacecraft and the second-ever one-year mission by an American astronaut.
The landing crew of Soyuz MS-19 consists of Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov – serving as the commander – and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos as well as American astronaut Mark Vande Hei of NASA. Both Dubrov and Vande Hei launched on Soyuz MS-18 on April 9, 2021, and have had long-term stays at the ISS.
Soyuz MS-19’s landing comes as Russian-American tensions have increased following Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24. Vande Hei is to be the last American to fly onboard a Russian spacecraft for the time being, per the current geopolitical situation.
Although there were public rumors that Vande Hei may not fly back on the Soyuz, Joel Montelboano – the ISS Program Manager – said that Vande Hei would land per the original plan, on the Russian Soyuz.
Upon landing, Vande Hei will have spent 355 days straight in space – more than any other American astronaut. This beats the previous single-flight record made by Scott Kelly in 2016, who spent 340 days in space. Other notable American astronauts who have made long-duration spaceflights include Christina Koch, Peggy Whitson, and Drew Morgan.
Astronaut Mark Vande Hei (@Astro_Sabot) will soon return home after completing a record-breaking 355 consecutive days on the @space_station.
He joins 4 others who have spent extended time in space. His mission will help NASA prepare for future #Artemis missions to the Moon. pic.twitter.com/SFlzdHn2SG
— NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 12, 2022
For Shkaplerov – who was born in Sevastopol, Ukraine SSR (Crimea) – Soyuz MS-19 has been his fourth spaceflight. He served as the station Commander for Expedition 66.
See Also
- Soyuz MS-19 Mission
- (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle
- L2 Russian Section
- L2 ISS Section
- Click here to Join L2
This was the first spaceflight for Dubrov who, like Vande Hei, also spent 355 days in space.
Soyuz MS-19 launched on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 5, 2021. The spacecraft carried Shkaplerov along with Russian spaceflight participants Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild.
Both Shipenko and Peresild flew to the ISS to film a movie called “The Challenge,” where Shipenko was the director and Peresild was the actress.
Soyuz MS-19 was designed so that it could be controlled by a single cosmonaut – in this case Anton Shkaplerov. This was done so that the training time could be reduced for the spaceflight participants on the journey to the ISS.
Shipenko and Peresild returned to Earth 12 days later on Soyuz MS-18.
Soyuz MS-19 lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 4, 2021. Credit: Roscosmos
The Soyuz MS-21 crew, which includes Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov, arrived at the ISS on March 18. They will replace the three-person international crew departing on Soyuz MS-19.
Undocking
Prior to undocking, Shkaplerov issued the command to the Soyuz spacecraft to unlatch from Rassvet’s docking port. Next, the hooks on the docking ring (the interface between the Rassvet Module and Soyuz) began to open. This was followed by undocking and physical separation a minute later at 07:21 UTC.
When the spacecraft separated, springs in the docking system caused the spacecraft to slowly move away from the Rassvet module at a rate of 0.12 m/s. Just like docking, the Kurs-Na docking system was used.
With the departure of Soyuz, Expedition 67 onboard the ISS officially began.
Separation Burn-1 occurred next and last for eight seconds. This was followed by Separation Burn-2, with a duration of 15 seconds. This burn caused Soyuz MS-19 to depart the Keep Out Sphere, which is an imaginary 200-meter sphere around the ISS.
After departing the ISS area, the Soyuz crew began a period of free flight.
Deorbit and Landing
Prior to deorbit, the Soyuz spacecraft reoriented itself to retrograde. The spacecraft was then commanded to fire its single S5.80 engine, located on the propulsion module of the spacecraft. The S5.80 is a pressure-fed engine that runs on dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), which are toxic hypergolic fuels.
The burn lasted for around four minutes. After the burn, the spacecraft and its crew were committed to reentry and landing.
As Soyuz MS-19 travels on a northeast sub-orbital trajectory over Egypt, explosive bolts on the spacecraft fired, separating the orbital and propulsion modules from the descent module.
Soyuz landing profile. Credit: NASA TV.
At this point, the spacecraft was around 140 km above the Earth.
As the spacecraft descended above the Caspian Sea, the descent module entered the plasma regime as it reentered the atmosphere. During this time period, the crew was in a blackout period, where the plasma built up around the vehicle blocked communications between the crew and ground controllers at Roscosmos Mission Control in Korolev, Russia.
After passing through the atmosphere, the crew regained radio contact with both mission control and recovery forces stationed around the recovery zone.
To slow the vehicle further, two pilot parachutes were deployed around 10 km in altitude following the deployment of the parachute cover on the side of the Descent module. Next, the drogue parachute was deployed prior to the deployment of the single main parachute.
At 5 km altitude, the heat shield detached, similar to the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. The spacecraft also vented remaining propellants. Before landing, the seats that the crew were sitting rise up to cushion the eventual landing.
Prior to landing, the solid motors on the bottom of the Descent module fired at an altitude of 0.7 meters above the ground to cushion the impact. The crew is scheduled landed on the Kazakh Steppe at 11:29 UTC.
The Russian recovery vehicles that will be used for recovery. Credit: NASA TV.
After landing, Russian ground recovery forces will extract Shkaplerov, Dubrov, and Vande Hei from the landed Soyuz spacecraft.
After initial post-flight medical checks, the Soyuz MS-19 crew will go their separate ways. Shkaplerov and Dubrov will likely take a flight back to Star City, Russia near Moscow.
Vande Hei, on the other hand, will board a NASA jet and will make the journey back to Houston, Texas along with other NASA personnel. Unlike similar journeys in the past, the NASA jet will have to avoid Russian airspace.
(Lead image: Soyuz MS-19 lands in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA)
