Vande Hei and Dubrov are returning to Earth after logging 355 days in space as members of Expeditions 64-66 aboard the International Space Station. Shkaplerov is returning after 176 days in space, serving as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 65 and leader of Expedition 66. The 355 day-mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut and provides him a lifetime overall of 523 days in space. Throughout his record objective, Vande Hei invested many hours contributing to scientific activities aboard the area station, performing whatever from plant research study to physical sciences research studies.
The NASA astronaut returned to Earth Wednesday, March 30, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Dubrov. The trio left the International Space Station at 3:21 a.m. EDT and made a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 7:28 a.m. (5:28 p.m. Kazakhstan time) southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Vande Hei then returned to Houston aboard a NASA aircraft Thursday, March 31.
Vande Hei finished approximately 5,680 orbits of the Earth and a journey of more than 150 million miles, roughly the equivalent of 312 journeys to the Moon and back. He witnessed the arrival of 15 visiting spacecraft and brand-new modules, and the departure of 14 going to spacecraft.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 65 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei cleans the International Space Stations Plant Habitat on August 31, 2021. Credit: NASA/Thomas Pesquet
Throughout his record mission, Vande Hei invested lots of hours adding to clinical activities aboard the space station, conducting everything from plant research study to physical sciences studies. He took part in a research study to check if crafted tissues cultured in space could offer a model for studying muscle loss and examining possible treatments prior to scientific trials. He likewise participated in the 2nd and very first harvests of chile peppers grown in area to study the obstacles of growing plants in microgravity, which might assist teams can grow their own food on future long-duration missions.
Vande Hei and Dubrov are returning to Earth after logging 355 days in area as members of Expeditions 64-66 aboard the International Space Station. Shkaplerov is returning after 176 days in space, serving as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 65 and leader of Expedition 66.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, back in the world after breaking the record for the longest single spaceflight in history by an American, took part in a virtual news conference last week, from the firms Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Vande Heis extended objective aboard the International Space Station caused a total of 355 days in space. The extended mission carried out by Vande Hei will enable NASA to much better observe the results of long-duration spaceflight on people as the strategies to go back to the Moon under the Artemis program and prepare for human expedition of Mars.
Vande Hei launched April 9, 2021, alongside Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov. It was his second journey into area. The 355 day-mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut and gives him a lifetime total of 523 days in space. Dubrov, who was on his first spaceflight, also remained onboard for 355 days.
