Three Russian cosmonauts will return to Earth on Thursday (September 29) and you can watch it all live.
Expedition 67 cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov will return to Earth on a russian Soyuz spacecraft from international space station (ISS).
Their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft is scheduled to undock from the Prichal module of the ISS at 03:34 a.m. EDT (07:34 GMT) and arrive in Kazakhstan, outside the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, at 06:57 a.m. EDT (10:57 GMT or 04:57 local time). ), NASA officials (opens in a new tab) said.
The undocking and reentry live stream will be available here on Space.com, via NASA television (opens in a new tab), as well as on the agency’s website, app and social media. Undocking coverage will begin at 3:15 a.m. EDT (0715 GMT) and landing coverage at 5:45 a.m. EDT (0945 GMT).
International Space Station: Facts About the Orbital Laboratory
The launch of the trio to the ISS on March 18 took place less than a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, and their Soyuz held the first all-Russian cosmonaut crew in 22 years.
Expedition 67 Featured many spacewalks to prepare and integrate the European robotic arm on the Russian side of the space station, adding to the robotic capabilities used by Canadarm2 from Canada and the Kibo module arm from Japan. (A spacewalk on August 17 was cut short due to problems with Artemyev’s suit, which were resolved before the next excursion.)
During a change of command ceremony on Wednesday, September 28, outgoing Expedition 67 commander Artemyev seemed reference to the ongoing war. “In the end, our war will end everywhere,” he said.
Expedition 68 Commander Samantha Cristoforetti is the first European woman to lead the ISS and the fifth European to do so overall. After Artemyev, Matveev and Korsakov leave, she will share the ISS with NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins and Kjell Lindgren and Frank Rubio, as well as cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.
In picture : Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti performs Europe’s historic first female spacewalk
The next crewed launch to the ISS should take place no earlier than October 5. Crew-5, a mission that will take place aboard a SpaceX crew dragon spacecraft, is set to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The multinational Crew-5 will include a seat for Anna Kikina, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly to the ISS aboard an American commercial spacecraft, as well as NASA’s Nicole Mann (who will become the first Native American woman in space), Josh Cassada of NASA and Koichi Wakata of Japan.
The launch of Crew-5 has been delayed for at least two days due to the potential “catastrophic” arrival of Hurricane Ian in Florida, as some officials called it a storm. Nasa stressed that the new launch date is tentative and dependent on the center’s recovery from the hurricane, which brought Category 4 winds to the state.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace (opens in a new tab). Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) Where Facebook (opens in a new tab).