4.10.2018
Credit: NASA
Two NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut will return from the International Space Station early Thursday morning (Oct. 4), and you can watch their departure and landing live online.
NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev are scheduled to touch down on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 7:45 a.m. EDT (1145 GMT). The agency will provide live coverage of the crew's departure and landing beginning at 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT), and you can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
After saying farewell to their Expedition 56 crewmates — NASA astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, German astronaut Alexander Gerst and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev — the departing trio will board the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft and close the hatch at 12:55 a.m. EDT (0455 GMT). About 3 hours later, the spacecraft will undock from the station's Poisk module at 3:57 a.m. EDT (0757 GMT).
Three hours after separating from the space station, the Soyuz will begin its deorbit burn at 6:51 a.m. EDT (1051 GMT), sending the spacecraft plunging into Earth's atmosphere. After a fiery re-entry, the ship will parachute down to its target landing site southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, where recovery crews will meet the astronauts.
Feustel, Arnold and Artemyev launched to the space station on March 21 and will have spent 197 days in space as members of Expeditions 55 and 56 when they return home. By the end of their mission, they will have circled planet Earth 3,152 times and traveled 83.4 million miles (134 million kilometers), NASA officials said in a statement. "During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew of Expedition 56 carried out science experiments ranging from physics to biological studies and conducted tests to expand navigation capabilities in preparation for future travel far from Earth," NASA officials said.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 12.50 MESZ
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Expedition 56 Trio Undocks For Trip Home
Expedition 56 Commander Drew Feustel and Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold of NASA, along with Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander Oleg Artemyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos undocked from the International Space Station at 3:57 a.m. EDT to begin their trip home.
Deorbit burn is scheduled for approximately 6:51 a.m., with landing in Kazakhstan targeted for 7:45 a.m. (5:45 p.m. Kazakhstan time). NASA TV coverage will resume at 6:30 a.m. for deorbit burn and landing coverage.
At the time of undocking, Expedition 57 will begin formally aboard the station, with Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), NASA’s Serena Aunon-Chancellor and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev comprising a three-person crew for one week.
Quelle: NASA
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LIVE-Frams:
Quelle: NASA-TV
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Update: 5.10.2018
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Space Station Crew Returns to Earth, Lands Safely in Kazakhstan
Three members of the Expedition 56 crew returned safely to Earth Thursday from the International Space Station, where they spent months providing hands-on support for scientific research in low-Earth orbit, working to keep the orbiting laboratory fully operational, and performing three spacewalks.
NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos landed at 7:44 a.m. EDT (5:44 p.m. in Kazakhstan) southeast of the remote town of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.
The crew completed hundreds of experiments during its 197-day expedition in space. Highlights included an investigation to study ultra-cold quantum gases using the first commercial European facility for microgravity research, and a system that uses surface forces to accomplish liquid-liquid separation.
The crew also welcomed five cargo spacecraft, which delivered several tons of supplies and research experiments. The 14th SpaceX Dragon flight was the first to arrive at the station, in April, shortly after the three crew members did, bringing supplies and equipment. It was followed by the 15th Dragon, which arrived in July with additional supplies. The ninth Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply spacecraft arrived in May before the end of Expedition 55. In August, a Russian Progress completed a record rapid rendezvous of less than four hours. And, in September, the seventh Japanese Konotouri cargo craft arrived just a week before the Expedition 56 trio departed for home.
Both Feustel and Arnold participated in dozens of educational downlink events while in space as part of NASA’s Year of Education on Station, reaching more than 200,000 students in 29 states. Feustel now has logged more than 226 days in space on three spaceflights, and Arnold spent more than 209 days during the course of two missions.
The duo ventured outside the space station on three spacewalks to perform maintenance and upgrades during Expeditions 55 and 56. Their work included replacing and upgrading external cameras, including those that will facilitate the approach and docking of the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial crew spacecraft when they begin launching soon from American soil. The spacewalkers also replaced components of the space station’s cooling system and communications network, and installed new wireless communication antennas for external experiments. Feustel has accumulated 61 hours and 48 minutes over nine career spacewalks, and ranks second overall among American astronauts. Arnold has 32 hours and 4 minutes during five career spacewalks.
Artemyev conducted one spacewalk, with fellow cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, to manually launch four small technology satellites and install an experiment called Icarus onto the Russian segment of the space station. The spacewalk timed out at 7 hours and 46 minutes, the longest in Russian space program history. Artemyev now has spent 366 days in space on his two flights.
Expedition 57 continues station research and operations with a crew comprised of Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA, Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. Gerst assumed command of the station as Feustel prepared to depart.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin are scheduled to launch Thursday, Oct. 11 for a same-day arrival, adding to the crew of Expedition 57.
Quelle: NASA