Soyuz Spacecraft Returns US-Russian Space Station Crew to Earth Amid Wind, Snow

[Buster's Uncle]

Soyuz Spacecraft Returns US-Russian Space Station Crew to Earth Amid Wind, Snow
SPACE.com
by Mike Wall, Senior Writer  11 hours ago



Expedition 38 crewmembers (from left) Mike Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy gather inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory for a crew portrait ahead of a planned March 10, 2014 landing aboard their Soyuz TMA-10



An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts made a snowy but safe landing on Earth late Monday (March 10), bringing their 5 1/2-month mission aboard the International Space Station to a successful close.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy touched down on the snowy steppes of Kazakhstan at 11:24 p.m. EDT Monday (0324 March 11 GMT; 9:24 a.m. March 11 local time), about 3 1/2 hours after leaving the space station.

Temperatures hovered around 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius) at the landing site, and strong winds whipped snow through the air.

"The crew will get a bit of a frigid welcome," a NASA commentator said as the Soyuz neared terra firma.

Because of the extreme conditions, recovery teams did not set up the standard medical tents for each crewmember. Instead, Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy were to be taken immediately to a helicopter after being removed from the capsule.

The trio spent 166 days in orbit, and their mission was nearly extended by 24 hours. Space station officials considered delaying the Soyuz' departure by a day because of bad weather on the ground in Kazakhstan but ultimately decided to go ahead with the original landing plan.



The recovery team attends to NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy after the trio's Soyuz capsule touched down in frigid Kazakhstan on March 10, 2014.


Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy launched toward the station on Sept. 26, initially joining the crew of the orbiting lab's Expedition 37. In November, Expedition 37 transitioned to Expedition 38, which Kotov commanded.

The spaceflyers enjoyed an eventful stint on orbit. For example, Hopkins and fellow NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio performed two emergency spacewalks to fix the orbiting lab's vital cooling system. And Kotov and Ryazanskiy took the (unlit) Olympic torch on a spacewalk in November to help celebrate and generate excitement about the 2014 Winter Olympics, which were held last month in the Russian city of Sochi.

The crewmembers also witnessed the first-ever trip to the space station by Orbital Sciences' unmanned Cygnus spacecraft, which made its maiden cargo delivery in January. Orbital holds a $1.9 billion contract with NASA to make eight such resupply runs.

Expedition 38 ended Monday evening, when the Soyuz undocked. On Sunday (March 9), Kotov officially handed the reins over to Koichi Wakata, the first-ever Japanese astronaut to helm the huge $100 billion spacecraft.

Wakata leads the new Expedition 39, currently a skeleton crew that also includes Mastracchio and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. This trio will get another robotic visitor in a week or so, as SpaceX's Dragon capsule is scheduled to launch toward the space station Sunday (March 16) on its third cargo delivery mission for NASA.

SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion deal with the space agency to make 12 unmanned resupply flights. The company has already completed two of those contracted missions.

The International Space Station will soon be fully staffed. Another Soyuz is slated to launch March 25 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying three new crewmembers — NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev — to the orbiting lab.


http://news.yahoo.com/soyuz-spacecraft-returns-us-russian-space-station-crew-042214117.html

[Buster's Uncle]

NASA Astronaut, 2 Cosmonauts Heading Home from Space Station
SPACE.com
by Mike Wall, Senior Writer  14 hours ago



A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy departs the International Space Station on March 10, 2014.



Three spaceflyers have said goodbye to the International Space Station and begun the journey home to Earth.

NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy left the station in a Soyuz spacecraft at 8:02 p.m. EDT Monday (March 10; 0002 GMT on March 11), wrapping up a 166-day orbital stint. The Soyuz is slated to touch down in the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan at 11:24 p.m. EDT Monday (0324 March 11 GMT; 9:24 a.m. March 11 local time).

The trio nearly stayed aboard the station for another day. Officials considered delaying the Soyuz' departure by 24 hours because of bad weather near the targeted landing zone, but they ultimately decided to go ahead with the original landing plan.

The departure of Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy brought to an end the orbiting lab's Expedition 38, which Kotov commanded. On Sunday (March 9), Kotov officially handed the reins over to Koichi Wakata, the first-ever Japanese astronaut to helm the huge $100 billion spacecraft.

Wakata leads the new Expedition 39, currently a skeleton crew that also includes NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. This trio will get a robotic visitor in a week or so, as SpaceX's Dragon capsule is scheduled to launch toward the space station Sunday (March 16) on its third cargo delivery mission for NASA.

SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion deal with the space agency to make 12 unmanned resupply flights. The company has already completed two of those contracted missions.

The International Space Station will soon be fully staffed. Another Soyuz is slated to launch March 25 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying three new crewmembers — one NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts — to the orbiting lab.


http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-astronaut-2-cosmonauts-heading-home-space-station-002415913.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Weather delays return from space of Russian torchbearers, U.S. astronaut
Reuters
22 hours ago



Russian astronaut Oleg Kotov holds an Olympic torch as he takes it on a spacewalk as Russian astronaut Sergei Ryazansky gives instructions outside the International Space Station in this still image taken from video courtesy of NASA TV, November 9, 2013. REUTERS/NASA TV/Handout via Reuters



MOSCOW (Reuters) - An American astronaut and two Russians who carried a Sochi Olympic torch into open space will have to stay in orbit one day longer than planned because of bad weather on the steppes of Kazakhstan, officials said on Monday.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky had been scheduled to leave the International Space Station (ISS) along with NASA's Mike Hopkins early on Tuesday and touch down in Kazakhstan at 0924 local time (2324 EDT Monday).

Instead, their Soyuz TMA-10M craft is now expected to depart about a day later and land on Wednesday at about 1015 (0015 EDT), Russian news agencies cited officials at the Gagarin cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow as saying.

Heavy fog and low visibility prevented airborne rescue and recovery teams from getting close to the remote landing site on the windswept flatlands near the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan on Monday, a Russian space industry source said.

Deep snow on the steppe could also make it tough for all-terrain vehicles to reach the crew, the source said.

Kotov and Ryazansky took an unlit Olympic torch on a spacewalk in November and posed with it outside the ISS. The torch was used to light the flame at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Games in the Russian city of Sochi last month.

On Sunday, Koichi Wakata, 50, became the first Japanese national to oversee a manned space mission, when Kotov handed him command of the ISS, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 420 km (260 miles) above Earth.


http://news.yahoo.com/weather-delays-return-space-russian-torchbearers-u-astronaut-185451999--sector.html

[Buster's Uncle]

US-Russian 3-man space station crew lands safely
Associated Press
13 hours ago



MOSCOW (AP) — A Soyuz capsule carrying a U.S.-Russian crew returning after spending nearly six months on the International Space Station landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

NASA said in a live TV broadcast that the capsule carrying American Mike Hopkins and Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy touched down as scheduled southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan at 9:24 a.m. local time Tuesday (0324 GMT, 11:24 p.m. EDT Monday). They spent 166 days in orbit on the space station.

After the Russian Soyuz TMA-10M capsule descended slowly by parachute onto the snow-covered steppes, Russian search and rescue vehicles quickly moved to the landing site for a quick recovery effort. Rescue crews who had maintained contact with the crew during their descent reported they were fine and in good spirits.

Heavy snowfalls and strong winds at the landing site had prompted Russian space officials to consider putting off the landing by a day, but they eventually decided to proceed with the original plan.

Koichi Wakata, the first Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut to command the space outpost, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin will remain aboard the space station until mid-May.

They will operate the station as a three-person crew for two weeks until the arrival of the next trio of crew members.


http://news.yahoo.com/us-russian-3-man-space-station-crew-lands-034004807.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S.-Russian space trio lands safely despite bad weather
Reuters
16 hours ago






ALMATY (Reuters) - An American astronaut and two Russians who carried a Sochi Olympic torch into open space landed safely and on time on Tuesday in Kazakhstan, defying bad weather and ending their 166-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

"We have a landing!" read a huge TV screen at Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow as the descent capsule hit the frozen ground at 0924 (0324 GMT) southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan.

"Safe arrival back on Earth," said a NASA TV announcer while all-terrain rescue and recovery vehicles were shown trundling across a snowy steppe to the Soyuz TMA-10M capsule. "The crew are reported to be in good health," NASA said.

Inside the capsule were former ISS commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineers Sergei Ryazansky and Michael Hopkins from NASA. The trio launched together into space on September 25.

Shortly afterwards, the space travelers were seated in semi-reclined chairs in the deep snow and covered with blue blankets to protect them from strong gusts of wind.

Kotov, the most experienced astronaut in his crew, was shown waving his left hand with a palm black from the soot of the descent capsule, which was charred on re-entry.



The Soyuz TMA-10M capsule is seen shortly after it landed with former ISS commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineers Sergei Ryazansky and Michael Hopkins from NASA onboard in a remote area southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan, March 11, 2014. An American astronaut and two Russians who carried a Sochi Olympic torch into open space landed safely and on time on Tuesday in Kazakhstan, defying bad weather and ending their 166-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Inside the capsule were former ISS commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineers Sergei Ryazansky and Michael Hopkins from NASA. The trio launched together into space on September 25. (REUTERS/Bill Ingalls/NASA/Handout via Reuters)


Rookie Hopkins smiled as a doctor checked his pulse.

In addition to working on 35 science experiments, Kotov and Ryazansky carried the unlit Olympic torch for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games outside the station during a spacewalk on November 9.

They left behind a small crew headed by Japan's Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese national to command the station. Three more crew members are due to arrive later this month.

Severe weather in Kazakhstan had threatened to delay the Soyuz's landing.

Before their undocking from the ISS, fog and low visibility had prevented airborne rescue and recovery teams from getting to Zhezkazgan, a town about 90 miles from the remote landing site on the windswept flatlands, a Russian space industry source said.

But Russian officials decided to go ahead with the landing after reviewing weather forecasts and the status of recovery crews.

"There's a lot of snow on the ground and temperatures are hovering in the single-digits (Fahrenheit)," said NASA mission commentator Dan Huot.

Due to severe weather conditions, it was decided not to set up an inflatable tent for routine medical tests at the landing site. Instead, the crew underwent just quick tests before being flown by helicopters straight to the local Kazakh town of Karaganda, where a formal welcome ceremony would be held.

The U.S.-Russian space partnership so far has not been affected by tensions over Ukraine. The countries lead the 15-nation space station programme.

The $100 billion research complex, which flies about 260 miles above Earth, has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000.


http://news.yahoo.com/two-russian-cosmonauts-u-astronaut-head-back-earth-003703623--sector.html