Three-man multinational ISS crew returns to Earth - Video

Expedition 41 Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency landed safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan near the town of Arkalyk on Nov. 10, Kazakh time, after bidding farewell to the Expedition 42 crew members and undocking their Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft from the Rassvet module on the International Space Station.

Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (L), Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (C), and NASA's Reid Wiseman (R) sit in chairs outside the Soyuz TMA-13M capsule just minutes after they landed in Kazakhstan November 10, 2014

A three-man multinational crew of astronauts returned to Earth Monday aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, after spending 165 days working together at the International Space Station, NASA said.

ISS commander, Russia's Max Suraev, his American colleague Reid Wiseman and German Alexander Gerst from the European Space Agency (ESA) touched down at 10:58 pm Sunday (0358 GMT Monday).

The three men smiled broadly from reclining chairs as medical personnel tended to them amid patches of snow on the barren steppe just northeast of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, where they landed.

Surayev flashed a V for victory sign while Wiseman pumped his fist as they waited to regain their land legs after nearly half a year of weightlessness.

"Everything was in the spirit of cooperation, so I think that everybody needs to learn and follow the example of the ISS crew members," Surayev said.

"Let's try to live together side by side. This is the most important thing," he added.

While in space the crew traveled more than 70 million miles (112.7 million kilometers), NASA said.

The "bulls-eye" touchdown was executed amid low clouds and fog "following a flawless descent back into the atmosphere," according to NASA TV.

The spacecraft was pulled onto its side by its parachute upon arrival, which NASA TV added was not uncommon.

The US space agency said the "departure of Wiseman, Gerst and Surayev marks the end of Expedition 41," referring to their mission to the ISS to carry out equipment repairs, maintenance and experiments.

Surayev was on his second long ISS mission, having now spent a total of 334 days in space, while the other two astronauts were on their first trip.

The three men were pictured smiling and with their arms around each other before hitching the ride back home, undocking from ISS at 7:31 pm (0031 GMT).

Another three-person crew remains on the ISS to "continue research and maintenance aboard the station" and will be joined by three more astronauts who launch from Kazakhstan on November 23, NASA said.

NASA lost its ability to reach the space station when the shuttle program ended in 2011 after 30 years.

The US space agency has helped fund private companies in a push to restore US access to the ISS.

In the meantime, the world's astronauts must rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to get to the ISS and back, at a cost of $70 million per seat.

There are 15 country participants in the ISS program, though the US and Russia contribute the lion's share of funds for the project.

Russian and American astronauts: ISS Crew return to Earth

Russian doctors help US NASA astronaut Steven Swanson after he returned with two Russian cosmonauts from the International Space Station, near the Kazakhstan city of Zhezkazgan on September 11, 2014

Credit: ROCOSMOS

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut returned to Earth on Thursday after spending more than six months working together aboard the International Space Station, as tensions between their countries soared over the Ukraine crisis.

Alex Skvortsov

American Steven Swanson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, who left on March 26, landed in the Kazakh steppe at 0223 GMT aboard a Soyuz capsule, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA said in joint statements.

The trio, who worked together in cramped quarters aboard the ISS, smiled broadly, gave thumbs up signs and waved in the sunshine as they spent their first minutes back on the planet.

The three spent a total of "169 days of science and technology research in space, including a record 82 hours of research in a single week" in July, NASA said in a statement.

The crew orbited the Earth more than 2,700 times and travelled more than 71.7 million miles, NASA said.

"One of several key research focus areas during Expedition 40 was human health management for long duration space travel as NASA and Roscosmos prepare for two crew members to spend one year aboard the orbiting laboratory in 2015," it said.

The ISS is now being commanded by Russian Cosmonaut Max Suraev, with crewmates Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency.

Three new crew members, Barry Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos, are due to arrive in two weeks, blasting off from Kazakhstan on September 25.

Elena Serova is the first Russian female cosmonaut to serve as an ISS crew member.

Amid the political tensions in Ukraine, NASA announced, in April, that it was cutting space cooperation with Russia over Moscow's Ukraine policies, but that work at the space station would not be affected.

Use of the space station depends very much on Russia, which is the only country with the capability of reliably transporting astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the facility.

The ISS was launched in 1998 as an international effort and has been a symbol of cooperation, particularly between the US (NASA), Russia (ROCOSMOS), Europe (ESA) and Japan (JAXA).

Aerial shot of the Expedition 40 Soyuz TMA-12M landing site.

Credit: ROCOSMOS 

SpaceX-3 Mission To Return Dragon’s Share of Space Station Science

While the splashdown of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on May 18 will conclude the company’s third contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station, it also serves as a high point for the scientists who have investigations returning to Earth who are eager to complete their analyses.

When the Dragon spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, it will carry with it more than 1,600 pounds of scientific supplies. These supplies include samples from biology, biotechnology and physical science investigations, as well as human research.

"While some of this data can be obtained by on orbit analysis, many analysis techniques have not been miniaturized or modified to allow them to be performed on orbit, which means sample return is the only way to obtain this data," said Marybeth Edeen, space station research integration office deputy manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

SpaceX Dragon's third operational mission will end May 18 after a month-long stay at the International Space Station. 

The unmanned spacecraft will return more than 1,600 pounds of science materials from the orbital outpost.

Image Credit: NASA

One of many studies returning examines drug-resistant bacteria to determine gene expression patterns and changes in microgravity.

The Antibiotic Effectiveness in Space (AES-1) investigation uses E. coli to better understand the decreased effectiveness of antibiotics during spaceflight.

The study is set on the premise derived from previous investigations that suggest bacteria are able to grow in space even in an antibiotic concentration that would normally deter growth.

“We intend to further corroborate these early findings and conduct more in depth genetic assays of the returned samples to get a better understanding of what might be responsible for this outcome,” said AES-1 principal investigator David Klaus, Ph.D., of BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

As bacteria grow more resistant to antibiotics, there are less effective pharmaceutical treatment options for people with bacterial infections.

The findings from AES-1 may help improve antibiotic development on Earth.

Advancing the efficacy of antibiotics and reducing their resistance to bacteria is a priority for health care professionals.

WHOI Alvin: Deep-diving sub cleared to return to service

Artist's rendition of the newly upgraded Alvin, showing its improved interior layout. 

Credit: E. Paul Oberlander, WHOI

After a three-year overhaul and major upgrade, the United States' deepest-diving research submersible, Alvin, has been cleared to return to work exploring the ocean's depths.

The sub has been out of service since December 2010, undergoing a major upgrade, including the replacement of its personnel sphere with a newly fabricated, larger, more capable hull.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) operates the U.S. Navy-owned sub for the National Deep Submergence Facility on behalf of a consortium of universities and research organizations conducting deep ocean research.

Steven Schulze

On Jan. 8, 2014, the Naval Sea Systems Command's (NAVSEA) Executive Director of Undersea Warfare for the Department of the Navy Steven Schulze certified that the sub could safely operate to depths of 3,800 meters, with the expectation that a certification dive to 4,500 meters will be completed later this year.

"There has been tremendous coordination between the Navy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to ensure Alvin's safety and integrity," said the Navy's Director of Advanced Undersea Integration Don Hoffer.

Don Hoffer

"Alvin is a national asset and the Navy is pleased to be a part of the team that returned the vehicle to service."

"Achieving Navy certification is a major milestone in the Alvin upgrade project, enabling the vehicle to get back to its critical mission of taking scientists to the deep sea," said WHOI Vice President for Marine Facilities and Operations Rob Munier.

Rob Munier

"This significant accomplishment is a testament to the rigorous engineering collaboration between WHOI and NAVSEA and the unwavering support of NSF.

Certification helps ensure that Alvin's excellent record of safety will continue for many decades to come."

Alvin carries a pilot and two science observers on missions that last approximately eight hours.

Certification was the final step in Stage I of the Alvin upgrade project, funded by NSF and WHOI.

The upgrade project included; 

• upgrades to major components for an increased depth rating of 6,500 meters,
•  including installation of a new, larger personnel sphere with improved interior ergonomics; 
• five viewports (instead of the previous three) to improve visibility and provide overlapping fields of view; 
• new lighting and high-definition imaging systems; new syntactic foam for buoyancy and an improved command-and-control system.; 

Upgrades also included improvements to Alvin's launch system and storage hangar onboard its support vessel, the R/V Atlantis.

The Navy certified Alvin using its Deep Submergence Scope of Certification process, reviewing the design, construction and materials used to ensure the vehicle performs as expected.

The Navy uses the same process to certify manned undersea systems for submarine rescue and submarine-based Special Operation Forces delivery systems.

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Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft returns Expedition 37 crew safely to Earth

Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin after landing back on Earth in Kazakhstan Nov. 10, 2013 on a Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft with crewmates Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. 

The Olympic torch arrived at the space station on Nov. 7 with another Soyuz crew.

Credit: NASA TV

A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan Sunday (Nov. 10), returning cosmonauts and two astronauts to Earth along with the Olympic torch.

The Soyuz spacecraft landed at 9:49 p.m. EST (0249 Nov. 11 GMT) in central Kazakhstan, where the local time was Monday morning.

Frigid temperatures greeted the returning space travelers — cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano — after five and a half months in space.

"The initial reports indicate a bull's eye landing for the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft and its crew," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during the agency's televised landing commentary.

View from the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft as it undocks from the ISS 

ISS Expedition 36 Crew to Return to Earth

In preparation for the Expedition 36 return to Earth, Commander Pavel Vinogradov of Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) handed over control of the International Space Station Monday, Sept. 9, 2013 at 2:25 p.m. EDT in a traditional Change of Command Ceremony. 

Roscosmos Flight Engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin will take over command and officially lead Expedition 37 when Expedition 36 undocks Tuesday at 7:35 p.m.

Going home with Vinogradov are Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy of NASA and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos, who arrived at the station March 28. 

They will land a few hours later in their Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft at 10:58 p.m. (8:58 a.m. Wednesday Kazakhstan time).

Soyuz landing coverage begins Tuesday on NASA TV at 4 p.m. with farewell and hatch closure.

In the bottom half of this photo, left to right, are Vinogradov and Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg of NASA and Misurkin.

In the top half of the photo are, left to right, Flight Engineers Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency, Cassidy, and Yurchikhin. This photo was taken on June 8, 2013.

Image Credit: NASA

Space Station Expedition 35 Crew Return Safely to Earth

A Soyuz Progress space capsule carrying a three-man crew returning from a five-month mission to the International Space Station has landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, American Thomas Marshburn, and Russian Roman Romanenko landed as planned south east of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

Live footage on NASA TV showed the Soyuz TMA-07M capsule slowly descending by parachute onto the sun-drenched steppes under clear skies. Russian search and rescue helicopters hovered over the landing site for a quick recovery effort.

Rescue teams moved quickly to help the crew in their bulky spacesuits get out through the narrow exit hatch of the capsule. They were then put into reclining chairs to start adjusting to Earth's gravity after 146 days in space.

The three astronauts smiled as they chatted with space agency officials and doctors who were checking their condition. Mr Hadfield, who served as the space station's commander, gave a thumbs-up sign. They then made quick phone calls to family members and friends.

NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said by telephone from the landing site that the three returning astronauts were doing very well.

Cmdr Hadfield, 53, an engineer and former test pilot from Milton, Ontario, was Canada's first professional astronaut to live aboard the space station and became the first Canadian in charge of a spacecraft. He relinquished command of the space station on Sunday.

"It's just been an extremely fulfilling and amazing experience end to end," he told Mission Control.

"From this Canadian to all the rest of them, I offer an enormous debt of thanks." He was referring to all those in the Canadian Space Agency who helped make his flight possible.

He bowed out of orbit by posting a music video on YouTube on Sunday - his own version of David Bowie's Space Oddity. It is believed to be the first music video made in space, according to NASA.

SpaceX Cargo Capsule: Undocking from ISS and Return to Earth Delayed One Day

SpaceX private cargo capsule's trip home to Earth from the International Space Station has been delayed by one day to Tuesday because of weather concerns near its targeted splashdown site.

SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft is now scheduled to splash down at 12:36 p.m. EDT (1636 GMT) on Tuesday (March 26) in the Pacific Ocean, 246 miles (396 kilometers) off the coast of Baja California, NASA officials announced Friday (March 22).

Dragon will be carrying about 2,670 pounds (1,210 kilograms) of equipment, hardware and scientific experiments, none of which should be affected by the slight delay, officials said.

"The additional day spent attached to the orbiting laboratory will not affect science samples scheduled to return aboard the spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in a Friday update.

Dragon launched toward the space station on March 1 and arrived two days later with about 1,200 pounds (544 kg) of supplies. The capsule's current mission is the second of 12 cargo deliveries California-based SpaceX is making under a $1.6 billion deal with NASA.

Dragon is slated to be released from the orbiting lab at 7:06 a.m. EDT (1106 GMT) on Tuesday. Its deorbit burn will take place 4 1/2 hours later, setting the stage for its Pacific Ocean splashdown. SpaceX personnel will retrieve the capsule with a crane-equipped boat and return it to shore about 30 hours later, NASA officials said.

NASA Scientist Plan Return to Uranus

A pair of enhanced images of Uranus from the Keck telescope on Hawaii are among the best from the Earth. Credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison/ W. M. Keck Observatory

An image of Uranus, its rings and moons from the Hubble space telescope in 1997. Credit NASA/ESA

While spacecraft continue to study the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, some space scientists are clamouring for missions to the neglected planets of the Solar System.

A NASA probe, New Horizons, is currently racing towards an ex-planet, Pluto, to speed past and tell us more about that world and its Kuiper Belt relatives. But ice giants Uranus and Neptune have not been properly studied from space since the Voyager missions of the 1980s.

There are no plans currently to return to the most distant planet Neptune. However, NASA has made a Uranus mission the third highest priority for planetary exploration in the 2020s, after another martian rover and further study of Jupiter.

The US financial crisis has put many future missions on hold due to budgetary restraints. But planetary scientists are pressing for such a mission to fly as soon as possible, especially after a similar proposal for a European mision, Uranus Pathfinder, was passed over in 2011.

ESA ATV production terminated: Executive Decision on follow-on under review

The cargo carrier pictured will fly on the ATV 4 mission, dubbed Albert Einstein. It has been delivered to an integration site in Bremen, Germany, for final assembly and testing before shipping to the launch site in French Guiana for liftoff in early 2013. Credit: ESA

Five ATV flights pay off ESA's operating cost burden until 2017. With the space station program extended until the end of the decade, ESA now owes approximately 450 million euros, or about $600 million, to meet its commitments between 2017 and 2020.

Confronted by parts obsolescence and waning political support, the European Space Agency has shut down subsystem production lines for the Automated Transfer Vehicle as member states debate how they will contribute to future international space exploration efforts, according to industry officials.

The huge cargo freighters, weighing more than 20 tons fully loaded, will stop flying in 2014 when the fifth resupply craft delivers equipment to the International Space Station.

ESA member states decided to discontinue the program after briefly considering redesigning the throwaway cargo craft to return hardware in a hardened re-entry capsule.

Three ATVs have launched since 2008, including a spacecraft now docked to the orbiting outpost. Two more spacecraft are due to launch in 2013 and 2014, and assembly of those vehicles has progressed enough to allow officials to shut down vendor production of the ATV's subsystems, according to UK's Bob Chesson, Program Manager of ESA's human spaceflight directorate.

The parts for the two remaining ATVs are mostly delivered to assembly plants in Italy and Germany, where the spacecraft's two main components are integrated.

"If we wanted to reopen production lines, there is a significant obsolescence problem at the equipment [and] component level," Chesson told reporters.

ESA launched the $2 billion development of the Automated Transfer Vehicle to pay the agency's share of the space station's common operating costs.

Instead of exchanging money, the space station's partners prefer to arrange barter agreements to pay debts for operating costs and launch services. Each ATV mission costs about $600 million.

ESA managers are consulting the agency's member states on the alternatives to pay their share of the station's operating costs. Officials expect representatives of the member states to decide on an option, or barter element, at a ministerial council meeting in November.

One option, tentatively favoured by Germany but dismissed by Italian and French space officials, is to sign an agreement with NASA to supply a service module to the Orion crew capsule, or multipurpose crew vehicle. The service module would be based on the ATV's propulsion section.

Germany is Europe's largest contributor to the space station program, followed by France and Italy.
Engineers in the United States and Europe are studying the scenario. Lockheed Martin Corp., the Orion spacecraft's manufacturer, is currently on contract to build the vehicle's service module.

The ATV service vehicle is built by EADS' Astrium Space Transportation.

Chesson said any derivative of the ATV will require major upgrades and a redesign of the avionics system to ensure modern components are commercially available. Such changes could put upward pressure on the cost of a follow-on to the ATV.

Instrumentation, cables and avionics being built up for the ATV 4 mission. Credit: ESA

The ATV consists of the service module and a pressurized cargo carrier, built in Italy by Thales Alenia Space, to uplift supplies, propellant, water and breathing air to the space station.

The automated spacecraft is now the largest resupply vehicle flying to the space station, following the retirement of the NASA Space Shuttle.

It is capable of transferring tons of rocket fuel into the outpost's Russian segment, reboosting the lab's orbit, and delivering hundreds of bags of food, clothing, experiments and other gear.

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the space station's demand for propellant will decrease in the next few years, curtailing the program's need for a large fuel-carrying freighter like the ATV.

"That's allowed us to essentially fill up the propellant tanks aboard the space station, so at this point, the unique capability of the Automated Transfer Vehicle to carry propellant is not needed," Gerstenmaier said in the March 28 testimony to the House Science Committee.

Commercial flights by U.S. spacecraft are expected to make up the rest of the lost capacity when the ATV program ends.

Acting as the space station program's chief integrator, NASA plans to request the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to order more H-2 Transfer Vehicles to cover that country's slice of the lab's operating costs.

JAXA is developing a returnable version of the HTV to fly as soon as late 2017, assuming funding to develop the modified spacecraft clears Japanese government budget-writers.

If approved, the re-entry upgrade, called HTV-R, could enter service before the end of the decade, bringing back to Earth up to 3,500 pounds of cargo on each flight.

"HTV provides a unique capability," Gerstenmaier said. "It can carry external cargo, which is important to us. It also has a large hatch where you can carry full research racks across to the space station."

Gerstenmaier told lawmakers NASA would like to have four HTVs fly after 2015. The last of seven HTVs currently on contract would launch in 2016, so two or three additional missions may be required through 2020.

Russian Soyuz TMA-16 lands safely on return from ISS

The Russian Soyuz TMA-16 space capsule, carrying Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev from the International Space Station, lands near the town of Arkalyk, in northern Kazakhstan

Picture: REUTERS / NASA

Appeal to Save the Mars Space flight Campaign: Give Generously

Humans could orbit Mars in the 2020s, says a panel appointed by the White House – but only if NASA's budget is boosted. At its current funding level, the agency will be unable to leave low-Earth orbit for at least the next two decades, according to a summary of the panel's report released on Tuesday.

Under President George W Bush, NASA was ordered to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. But in May, the Obama administration set up a panel of space experts to review the space agency's human spaceflight plans. The panel is led by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine.

Though its final report is still being completed, on Tuesday the committee sent a summary of its findings to the White House and NASA. A final decision on NASA's future direction rests with the White House and Congress.

The summary contains a list of five possible ways forward for NASA's human spaceflight programme, without endorsing any particular one over the others.

One of those options, called the Flexible Path, would send astronauts to a series of increasingly distant destinations, starting with a mission to orbit the moon. A mission to an asteroid would follow later, and the plan would culminate in a mission to Mars, which the panel says could be achieved by the mid- to late-2020s.

To avoid breaking the bank, this option would delay development of any landing craft and other hardware needed to actually put astronauts on the planet's surface.