The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft with three cosmonauts aboard departs the area station on time to return the crewmates to Earth. Credit: NASA TV
The other day, September 29, the Soyuz spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 3:34 a.m. EDT (12:34 a.m. PDT), carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov back to Earth.
Exploration 68 formally began onboard the station at the time of undocking. Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) is the station commander for the team consisting of NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.
The trio of cosmonauts landed backon Earth at 6:57 a.m. EDT in Kazakhstan (4:57 p.m. Kazakhstan time), southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan.
The Soyuz MS-21 team ship with 3 cosmonauts aboard is seen parachuting to a landing in Kazakhstan less than three-and-a-half hours after undocking from the spaceport station. Credit: NASA TELEVISION
The trio of Russian comonauts came to the station on March 18 aboard the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft. The trio go back to Earth after 195 days in space that spanned 3,120 orbits of Earth and over 78 million miles.
This was the first flight for both Matveev and Korsakov. At the time of landing, the 2 cosmonauts will have each logged 195 days in area.
Artemyev completed 5 spacewalks totaling 33 hours, 12 minutes during the mission. He has actually now logged a combined 561 days in space on his 3 flights.
Throughout the mission, Matveev completed 4 spacewalks totaling 26 hours, 7 minutes. He logged 195 days in area on his first flight.
On his first voyage, Korsakov invested 195 days in space as well.
The trio will go back to the healing staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan by means of Russian helicopters, before boarding a Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center airplane to go back to their training base in Star City, Russia.
Remaining aboard the station is the seven-person crew of Expedition 66. This consists of Station Commander Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.
In October, NASAs SpaceX Crew-5 members will join the Expedition 68 members aboard the station. This 4 individual team is consisted of NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina. Crew-5 will be the 5th team rotation objective of SpaceXs human area transportation system, and its 6th flight with astronauts, to the ISS for NASAs Commercial Crew Program.
The ISS has actually already gone beyond 20 years of constant human existence, supplying chances for distinct technological demonstrations and research study that assist prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars while also improving life on Earth. So far, 260 individuals from 20 nations have gone to the orbiting laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research examinations from scientists in more than 100 nations and areas.