A SpaceX Crew Dragon ferry ship carrying four long-term crew members departed the International Space Station on Monday, setting the stage for reentry and landing early Tuesday to complete a 199-day mission.
NASA commander Jasmine MoghbeliEuropean Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensenjapanese pilot Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov The two spacecraft departed the upper port of the station’s forward Harmony module at 11:20 a.m. (EDT) while cruising 265 miles above the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
“I am very sorry to be leaving the station, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone,” Marine combat helicopter pilot Moghbeli said on Sunday. said. “You know, there are a few of us on board, but there is an international team around the world that makes this possible.
“Our friends and family bear the brunt of what we do here by leaving for six months. So thank you to everyone.”
Crew Dragon was expected to land in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at 5:50 a.m. Tuesday, following a fiery northwest-to-southeast course across America’s heartland. SpaceX recovery teams were deployed to the splash pad to await the arrival of Crew Dragon Endurance. Good weather was expected.
Launched last August 26 From Kennedy Space Center, Moghbeli’s crew will have completed 3,184 orbits and traveled 54.4 million miles at splashdown. In addition to extensive research, Moghbeli and Soyuz crewmate Loral O’Hara also conducted a spacewalk last November.
“This is something I’ve dreamed of since I was a child and I was afraid to come here and be disappointed, it wouldn’t live up to my expectations but the international partnership and space we have here Moghbeli said: “The station is truly incredible. “This is a demonstration of what we can do when we work together,” he said.
Borisov admitted that leaving the station was a “bittersweet moment”.
“We’ve been here for over six months, but time has flown so quickly and it’s time to go back, and that’s a bit sad,” he said. “But I’m really happy that we’ve done all the work we planned to do. The station is running very well, all the experiments are ongoing, and we know we’ve handed it over to a great team.”
Crew 7 reserves — Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin—were launched to the station on March 3, briefly increasing the number of the laboratory team to 11. With the departure of Crew 7, the laboratory is now filled with four Crew 8 pilots. Soyuz commander with cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko Nikolai Chub and NASA’s O’Hara.
Launched last September Aboard the Soyuz ferry MS-24/70S, Kononenko and Chub are in the middle of a one-year mission and will need a new Soyuz for their return trip to Earth next September.
The Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft will be delivered to the space station on March 21 by cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, Belarusian guest cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson. Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya and O’Hara will return to Earth on April 2, using the same Soyuz that carried Kononenko, Chub and O’Hara to the station last year.
Kononenko, Chub and Dyson will use the Novitskiy-delivered Soyuz on their journey home in September.
During a change of command ceremony Sunday, Expedition 70’s outgoing commander, Mogensen, turned the station over to Kononenko. On April 2, Expedition 71 will begin when Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya and O’Hara set off.
As Crew 7 departed, Moghbeli radioed the station crew, “We wish you good luck.” “For those remaining on Expedition Ship 71, we hope it will be as full of laughter and science as ours was. Loral, see you in a few weeks. We also left you some peanut butter and tortillas in Part One.”
“Congratulations on your departure,” O’Hara replied. “I miss you guys already and thank you for this generous gift!… Enjoy the last few hours in orbit and the soft landings. I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks.”
Kononenko now holds the record for most total time spent in space across his four missions, surpassing the previous record from earlier this year.
“On my first mission in 2015, I had the pleasure of flying with Gennady Padalka, who at the time broke the record for (multiple flight endurance) of 878 days in space,” Mogensen said during the transfer of command ceremony. said.
“You’re over that now,” he told Kononenko, “and you’re well on your way to reaching a thousand days in space, which is an incredible achievement. There’s no one more experienced internationally than you.” Space station. So I’m going to leave it in the best hands possible.”
Kononenko will reach the 1000-day mark on June 4. When he returns to Earth, he will have spent more than three years in space.
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