Russian Soyuz brings 3 space station spacecraft home after record-breaking mission

Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, now the world’s most experienced astronaut, first astronaut Nikolai Chub and NASA veteran Tracy Dyson undocked from the International Space Station and returned to Earth on Monday, capping a record-breaking mission with a stunning photo landing in Kazakhstan .

With the Soyuz crew back home, NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov to the station aboard the Crew Dragon capsule on Thursday, weather permitting. Liftoff from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 2:05 pm EDT.

Hague and Gorbunov plan to join Starliner astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams boarded the lab, along with newly arrived astronauts Alexsey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and NASA’s Donald Pettit.

Four other station crew members – Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin – are nearing the end of their six-month mission and plan to return to Earth aboard another Crew Dragon spacecraft in early October.

But first, the Russians need to return Kononenko, Chub and Dyson to Earth after a marathon mission.

The Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft lifted off from the station at 4:36 a.m. EDT on Monday. Plunging back into visible space in a southwest-to-northeast direction, the spacecraft descended from a cloudless blue sky under a large red-and-white parachute, touching down over Kazakhstan at 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. local time). .

Russian recovery crews and flight surgeons, including NASA personnel, were on the scene within minutes to help the returning stations exit the cramped Soyuz descent module for initial medical checks and satellite calls home to family and friends.

By landing in Kazakhstan, Dyson entered orbit for 184 days since it was launched last March 23. Kononenko and Chub, launched on a separate Soyuz last September 15logged more than a full year in space – 374 days – the longest sojourn ever on the International Space Station.

Including four previous trips to the lab, Kononenko’s cumulative time in space now totals 1,111 days, 233 days more than the 878-day mark set by the previous record holder, cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.

All station flyers are exercising hard, every day, to maintain muscle mass and bone density in a weightless environment. But returning long-term fliers often need several weeks to fully acclimate to the effects of gravity.

Still, all three members of the Soyuz crew appeared to be in good health, smiling widely after being pulled from the descent module and taken to nearby recliners. Dyson, who flew to the station with a different team last March, was presented with a bouquet of flowers by his former commander, Oleg Novitskiy, much to his surprise and obvious delight.

During a change-of-command ceremony Sunday, Kononenko, the station’s outgoing commander, turned over the crew to Williams, who arrived at the lab on June 6 aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. He served as the ISS commander for the last time he boarded the lab in 2012.

Williams and Wilmore dismiss eight months and a half unexpected ride on the station due to helium leaks and thruster problems that caused NASA to do it return the Boeing spacecraft to Earth September 7 without its employees.

“Expedition 71 taught us a lot about flexibility,” Williams told his colleagues, referring to the Starliner and its impact on station operations. “You took me and Butch even though that wasn’t the plan. But we’re part of the family here. … We appreciate it.”

To Kononenko, he said “Oleg, we will remember hundreds of your stories at the dinner table. But I think that’s what you get from having more than 1,000 days in space, you get those stories, right?”

Chub told the station staff that “they’re going to miss your precision, your creativity, but I guess that’s what you get when you sign up for your rookie flight (time) for over a year in space. And Tracy, we’ll miss you . . . organization, and your ability to make order without chaos So thank you, all three, for that.

The addition of the Starliner crew to the space station’s roster has challenged the carefully planned schedule of scheduled Soyuz and SpaceX Crew Dragon flights to and from the station meant to replace the lab’s seven full-time crew members.

NASA originally intended to start the latest crew cycle by launching the next Crew Dragon flight in August, sending Crew 9 commander Zena Cardman, Stephanie Wilson, Hague and Gorbunov to the lab to replace Dominick and their crew.

But Crew 9’s flight was halted, and Crew 8’s mission extended, while NASA administrators argued that Boeing’s Starliner capsule, launched June 5 on the ship’s first test flight, could safely bring Wilmore and Williams home.

Playing it safe, the agency’s management decided on August 24 to keep the Starliner astronauts in the station longer and return the Boeing spacecraft to Earth by remote control. That left the Crew Dragon as the only ship available to take Wilmore and Williams back to Earth.

Freeing two Starliner crew seats, NASA bumped Cardman and Wilson from the Crew 9 list. Meanwhile, four days after the Starliner returned to Earth untested on September 7, the Russians introduced Ovchinin, Wagner and Pettit to replace Kononenko, Chubb and Dyson.

Hague and Gorbunov are now scheduled to launch Thursday afternoon from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The four crew members of Crew 8 — Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin — plan to return to Earth around Oct. 4.

Hague, Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams are now expected to return home around Feb. 22 aboard Crew 9 Dragon.