Three cosmonauts returned safely from the Worldwide House Station, touchdown on the steppe of Kazakhstan after six and a half months in orbit.
Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, all with the Russian federal space company Roscosmos, touched down aboard the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft (opens in new tab) at 6:57 a.m. EDT (1057 GMT or 4:57 p.m. native time) on Thursday (Sept. 29). Their parachute-assisted touchdown southeast of the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan delivered to an finish the primary flight of an all-Russian career-cosmonaut crew in additional than twenty years.
Russian restoration groups had been on web site quickly after the Soyuz spacecraft landed to help the crew as they exited the descent capsule and started readjusting to the conventional pull of gravity. All three cosmonauts had been in good spirits as they took their first breaths in of the crisp, recent air that they’d been lacking throughout their 195 days on the International Space Station.
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“Wonderful, we really feel glorious,” mentioned Artemyev, describing his and his crewmates’ situation.
Artemyev, Matveev and Korsakov launched to the orbiting complex (opens in new tab) on March 18 to affix the station’s Expedition 66 crew. Their departure, at 3:34 a.m. EDT (0734 GMT) on Thursday, marked the formal starting of Expedition 68. Artemyev, who led Expedition 67, handed over result in European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti earlier than leaving the station.
“I believe I communicate on behalf of all our crew in saying how a lot we appreciated your management within the final months,” Cristoforetti advised Artemyev throughout a brief change of command ceremony on Wednesday. “I believe you could have actually helped us develop collectively, not solely as crew members and crewmates, but additionally as one huge space household.”
Cristoforetti is the primary European lady and first Italian to command the station.
“It is clearly an honor and a privilege to symbolize Europe in space on the space station. And naturally, as an Italian astronaut, it is particularly an honor to symbolize Italy,” she mentioned.
Cristoforetti has been on the station since April, when she and NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins arrived aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Freedom.” (opens in new tab) They’re set to return to Earth 5 days after the arrival of the subsequent Dragon crew — together with Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, Koichi Wakata of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina (opens in new tab) — at present focused for no sooner than Wednesday (Oct. 5), pending Hurricane Ian’s influence on NASA’s Kennedy House Middle in Florida.
The Expedition 68 crew additionally contains Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin of Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who arrived on the station aboard Soyuz MS-22 on Sept. 21 (opens in new tab).
Artemyev, Matveev and Korsakov’s time in space was highlighted by a collection of 5 spacewalks dedicated to configuring and outfitting a brand new European robotic arm to be used on the Russian section of the station. Artemyev and Matveev logged 26 hours and seven minutes on 4 of the outings. The fifth spacewalk took Artemyev and Cristoforetti 7 hours and 5 minutes to finish.
Korsakov supported the extravehicular actions of his crewmates by coordinating their duties from inside.
Between the spacewalks and aiding with U.S.-launched science experiments, the cosmonauts put in and examined a brand new 3D printer constructed by the Energia House Rocket Company. Artemyev additionally filed reviews as a particular correspondent for the TASS information company.
This was Artemyev’s third flight to the space station. The 51-year-old cosmonaut has now logged greater than 561 days in low Earth orbit.
Matveev, 39, and Korsakov, 38, each accomplished their first spaceflights. All three Soyuz MS-21 crewmates had been graduates of Bauman Moscow State Technical College. The design of their mission patch was modeled after the varsity’s crest.
The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft traveled a total of 77 million miles (124 million km) whereas finishing 2,960 orbits of Earth.
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