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The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft, which launched three Russian cosmonauts to the Worldwide House Station on March 18 of this 12 months, touched down within the Kazakh steppe. MS-21 landed exterior of Dzhezkazgan on Thursday, Sept. 29, finishing a 195-day mission in low Earth orbit.
Soyuz MS-21 and Expedition 67 commander Oleg Artemyev, Flight Engineer 1 Denis Matveev, and Flight Engineer 2 Sergey Korsakov stated their farewells to their Expedition 66/67 crew mates and boarded their spacecraft for the journey house through the early hours of Sept. 29.
The undocking of MS-21 occurred at 07:34 UTC Thursday morning. The cosmonauts spent their final hours in house getting ready for deorbit and touchdown earlier than the spacecraft’s scheduled landing at 10:57 UTC within the semi-arid steppe the place most Soyuz spacecraft missions have concluded.
The three crew members of Soyuz MS-21 previous to launch. From left to proper, Sergey Korsakov, commander Oleg Artemyev, and Denis Matveev. (Credit score: NASA)
The MS-21 spacecraft, S.P. Korolev, undocked from Prichal’s nadir port the place it has remained for the final six months. This spacecraft was the primary to dock with Prichal after it grew to become operational earlier this 12 months and was additionally the primary to undock from the ball-shaped module mounted on the nadir docking port of the Nauka module.
The undocking course of began three hours and 23 minutes earlier than the scheduled touchdown, with a command to start opening hooks and latches. Three minutes later, the bodily separation of the spacecraft started. Six minutes after the primary undock command was given, S.P. Korolev carried out a 15-second separation burn to quicken its departure from the ISS.
Fifty-four minutes earlier than the scheduled touchdown, the spacecraft carried out its deorbit burn utilizing the engines mounted on the service module. Shortly earlier than the atmospheric entry interface, the service module—containing the propulsion system and photo voltaic panels—and the orbital module—containing the docking equipment—will each separate from the descent module, the place the cosmonauts reside.
Soyuz MS-21 (backside) seen docked to the Prichal node on the ISS. (Credit score: NASA)
Soyuz MS-21 reentered the ambiance at round 121 kilometers in altitude—31 minutes after the deorbit burn and 23 minutes earlier than touchdown. The parachute deployment course of began quarter-hour previous to landing, with pilot chutes extracting the drogue chute. The primary parachute was then deployed, and small stable rocket motors on the backside of the descent module fired simply earlier than landing to make sure a delicate touchdown.
As soon as the spacecraft touches down on the steppe, the crew members are extracted separately and checked over by Roscosmos personnel earlier than being taken again to Star Metropolis close to Moscow. Oleg Artemyev, finishing his third flight, spent a complete of 560 days in orbit on the finish of MS-21’s mission. Cosmonauts Matveev and Korsakov have been each on their first spaceflight, they usually every have 195 days of house expertise.
Throughout the MS-21 crew’s 195-day keep in orbit, the cosmonauts carried out spacewalks to arrange the European Robotic Arm (ERA) and conduct different duties. Oleg Artemyev carried out 5 spacewalks—4 with Denis Matveev and one with ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Sergey Korsakov was the intravehicular crew member who assisted the spacewalking cosmonauts from contained in the Station.
The Soyuz MS-21 flight was the primary flight with three Roscosmos cosmonauts aboard, as NASA determined to postpone a seat swap till MS-22 and SpaceX Crew-5 have been prepared. Astronaut Loral O’Hara was getting ready to switch Sergey Korsakov if the crew swap have been to go forward for MS-21 and Crew-4, however will as an alternative fly on Soyuz MS-23.
Soyuz MS-21 approaches the ISS on March 18, 2022. (Credit score: NASA)
Soyuz MS-21 was additionally the primary crewed spaceflight from Baikonur for the reason that Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The worldwide geopolitical state of affairs has solid doubt on the way forward for US-Russian house cooperation on the ISS program going ahead, although joint ISS operations and crew swaps are persevering with as typical at the moment.
Oleg Artemyev is succeeded by Samantha Cristoforetti because the commander of ISS, and the Soyuz MS-21 crew has handed over the Russian presence on the station to the crew of Soyuz MS-22. Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin—each backup crewmembers for MS-21—are staying aboard ISS for the subsequent six months.
NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio, who launched to the ISS with Prokopyev and Petelin aboard MS-22, can also be on a six-month rotation to the Station. The crew swaps are designed to make sure that each the US and Russia all the time have a presence onboard and to permit for flights of their personnel to proceed if Soyuz or the US business autos are grounded for any motive.
One other Soyuz MS-21 backup crewmember, Anna Kikina, is scheduled to fly aboard the SpaceX Crew-5 mission in October, alongside astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, and Koichi Wakata of Japan.
(Lead picture: A Soyuz spacecraft approaches the Worldwide House Station on a earlier mission. Credit score: NASA)
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