Expedition 49 crew members Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly
Ivanishin
of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and
Takuya
Onishi
of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are concluding a 115-day mission of
science and research aboard the International Space Station and are set to
return to Earth Oct. 29, 2016.
Credits: NASA
|
Three crew members on the International Space Station are scheduled
to depart the orbital outpost Saturday, Oct. 29, with coverage of activities
beginning the day before on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space
agency Roscosmos, and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from
the space station at 8:37 p.m. EDT Saturday and land in Kazakhstan at 11:59
p.m. (9:59 a.m. Oct. 30, Kazakhstan time).
Their return will wrap up 115 days in space for the crew since
their launch in July.
Together, the Expedition 49 crew members pursued hundreds of
experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science
aboard the orbiting laboratory.
NASA Television will air coverage of the departure and landing
activities at the following dates and times:
Friday, Oct. 28:
·
3:30 p.m. – Change of
command ceremony in which Ivanishin hands over station command to NASA’s Shane
Kimbrough
Saturday, Oct. 29:
·
4:45 p.m. – Farewell and
hatch closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled at 5:15 p.m.)
·
8:15 p.m. – Undocking
coverage (undocking scheduled at 8:37 p.m.)
·
10:45 p.m. – Deorbit
burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled at 11:06 p.m., with landing
at 11:59 p.m.)
Sunday, Oct. 30:
·
2 a.m. – Video File of
hatch closure, undocking and landing activities
·
1 p.m. – Video File of
landing and post-landing activities and post-landing interview with Rubins and
Onishi in Kazakhstan
At the time of undocking, Expedition 50 will begin aboard the
station under the command of NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough. Along with his
crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, the three-person
crew will operate the station for three weeks until the arrival of three new
crew members. Peggy Whitson of NASA, Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space
Agency) and Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch in November from
Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Check out the full NASA TV schedule and video streaming
information at:
Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and
crews, at:
Get breaking news, images and features from the station on
Instagram and Twitter:
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