Preparations are underway to bring back three astronauts who spent nearly a year on the International Space Station, six months longer than expected.
A rescue vessel sent by the Russian space agency Roscosmos earlier this year carried NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Peterin and Sergey Prokopiev on board the ISS on Sept. 27. I plan to leave
UAE astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi, who arrived in March on the longest space mission in the Arab world, was also part of the ISS crew.
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An American and two Russians traveled to the ISS on September 21, 2022. However, three months after docking, their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was reportedly catastrophically damaged by a meteorite impact.
The rescue ship Soyuz MS-23, which arrived unmanned at the ISS with 430kg of supplies in February, is now preparing to return to Earth with three astronauts.
how are they coming back?
NASA said one of two maneuvers took place on Friday to allow the Soyuz MS-23 to leave the ISS successfully.
This will help ensure the correct trajectory for the return home, as well as arrange for the arrival of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, a Russian crewed mission to the space station in September.
“The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft’s delta velocity thrusters fired for 22 minutes and 48 seconds at 10:35 a.m. EDT on Friday at the International Space Station reboot,” NASA said Friday.
“This is the proper orbit for the September 15th launch and two-orbital rendezvous of the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 into the orbital complex, and the September 27th undocking and landing of the Soyuz MS-23. It was one of two reboots targeting
The three returning astronauts are scheduled to land in Kazakhstan, with the exact time to be announced soon.
What happened to the damaged spacecraft?
Roscosmos said a micrometeorite may have punctured the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, causing an irreparable coolant leak.
A stable temperature could not have been maintained during the astronaut’s return journey.
Russia returned a Soyuz MS-22 to Earth in autonomous mode in March.
A similar coolant leak aboard the cargo spacecraft Progress MS-21 in February was also attributed to an “external factor.”
record time in space
An additional six months means the record for the amount of time an American astronaut spends in space will be set.
Rubio will break Mark Vande Hey’s record of spending 355 consecutive days on the ISS from 2020 to 2021.
Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, who were on the same mission as Hay, set a record for the longest time spent by Russians on the ISS. Mr. Peterin and Mr. Prokopiev intend to break it.
Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who died last year, holds the world record for the longest single space stay. He spent 437 days on the Mir space station.
How do stranded astronauts spend their time?
The three were busy fulfilling duties assigned to the crew that replaced them.
These include maintenance work, conducting spacewalks, aid operations, and scientific research.
Soyuz MS-24 will carry NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and astronauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub.
UAE’s Dr Al Neyadi is due to return to Earth this month on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
Updated: Aug 16, 2023, 5:44 AM