Commander Terry Virts was the maintenance man Friday as he inspected windows and checked for dust buildup in vents inside the Destiny lab module. Virts also conducted more plumbing work, replacing a recycle tank in the Water Recovery System.
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was in Europe’s Columbus lab module continuing her week-long science activities in the BioLab. She ran the TripleLux-B experiment using the BioLab’s glovebox for the second time this week to study cellular mechanisms that cause impairment of immune functions in microgravity.
Back on Earth, three new crew members are at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, waiting to join Expedition 43. Soyuz TMA-16M Commander Gennady Padalka and One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are preparing for launch on March 27. Kelly and Kornienko will stay in space until March 2016. Padalka will return to Earth on Sept. 11.
The International Space Station raised its orbit on Wednesday evening, placing it in the correct orientation for the docking of a new Soyuz spacecraft and crew next week. Inside the station the multinational Expedition 43 crew stayed focused on long-term microgravity studies and the upkeep of their orbital laboratory.
The ISS Progress 58 spacecraft, docked at the aft end of the Zvezda service module, fired its engines Wednesday afternoon for four minutes, 18 seconds. The orbital boost readies the station for the arrival next Friday of the Soyuz TMA-16M, which will carry to the station Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko.
Meanwhile, Commander Terry Virts put on his high-flying plumber’s cap and replaced hardware on the Waste and Hygiene Compartment. He also participated in the Astro Palate study investigating how food affects the mood of crew members during a spaceflight.
After troubleshooting the BioLab earlier in week, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti began the first of two runs of the TripleLux-B experiment inside the BioLab glovebox. TripleLux-B studies cellular mechanisms that cause impairment of immune functions in microgravity.
The Expedition 43 crew members worked on science hardware Wednesday. Back on Earth, Russian flight controllers are planning to fire the thrusters of a docked cargo craft to raise the International Space Station’s orbit.
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti completed the activation and testing of the new Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System (MARES). She also inspected cables and connectors on a science freezer for corrosion.
Commander Terry Virts configured hardware and reviewed procedures for the Advanced Colloids Experiment Microscopy-3 (ACE M-3). Virts also conducted an annual certification review of the Microgravity Science Glovebox, inspecting and cleaning up around the rack.
Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti and Anton Shkaplerov practiced emergency procedures Tuesday, preparing the three crew members for the actions they would take in the unlikely event that they must evacuate the International Space Station.
Cristoforetti went back to work on the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System (MARES). She will be setting up MARES hardware inside the European Columbus lab module over the next two days. Virts assisted her with the MARES deployment just before lunchtime.
Virts later moved to the U.S. Destiny lab module to pack up a physics experiment in the Microgravity Science Glovebox. The commander stowed the Coarsening in Solid Mixtures-4 (CSLM-4) experiment, an investigation studying solid-liquid mixtures, which will be returned on a future SpaceX Dragon mission.
Meanwhile, Soyuz TMA-16M Commander Gennady Padalka and One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are preparing for launch on March 27, when they will join Expedition 43 at the orbital laboratory. Kelly and Kornienko will stay in space until March 2016. Padalka will return to Earth Sept. 11.
The three-person Expedition 43 crew with Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti and Anton Shkaplerov are the sole occupants of the International Space Station right now. They are getting ready for upcoming module relocation work and preparing for upcoming science work.
Virts installed a connector cap and a power cable to get the station ready for the Permanent Multipurpose Module relocation this summer from the Unity module to the Tranquility module. A new exercise device, the Muscle Atrophy Research and Exercise System (MARES), will be commissioned Tuesday for which Cristoforetti reviewed MARES overview materials. She was also troubleshooting the BioLab for work with the TripleLux-B experiment which studies cellular mechanisms in microgravity.
Soyuz TMA-16M Commander Gennady Padalka and One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko have left Star City, Russia, and are heading to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. There the trio will launch March 27 to join Expedition 43 at the orbital laboratory. Kelly and Kornienko will stay in space until March 2016. Padalka with return to Earth Sept. 11.
Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti and Anton Shkaplerov are resting today after sending their Expedition 42 crewmates back to Earth last night. Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore handed the controls of the International Space Station to Virts in a Change of Command Ceremony Tuesday morning.
Wilmore, Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev and Flight Engineer Elena Serova completed their mission after landing in Kazakhstan about 10:07 p.m. EDT Wednesday. They entered their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft then undocked from the Poisk module at 6:44 p.m. when Expedition 43 officially began.
Some of the return cargo flown aboard this Soyuz was used as part of research investigations aboard the International Space Station. Researchers on the ground are waiting on the return of 17 area dosimeters from one such study, the Area Passive Dosimeter for Life-Science Experiments in Space (Area PADLES). These area dosimeters continuously monitored radiation throughout Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module. The dosimeters gathered information about space radiation to help manage exposure and provide protection to crew members.
Researchers may use data from Area PADLES to design new radiation monitoring equipment for astronauts and people who work in medical or industrial areas with potential radiation exposure. This knowledge also may help develop better protective measures for the life sciences studies that occur within Kibo. Futhermore, the results from this research could improve design for future spacecraft structures that will shield internal occupants from radiation.
Russian scientists are expecting the return of two incubation containers with planarian worms aboard this Soyuz spacecraft. The Effect of Weightlessness on Processes of Regeneration by Electrophysiological and Morphological Factors (Regeneratsiya-Planaria (Regeneration-Girardia)) investigation is an assessment of the impact of microgravity on the structural and functional regeneration of amputated organs and tissues of planarian worms.
Planarian worms, known for their regenerative processes, can be cut into pieces and each piece can grow back into a complete organism. Study of these organisms in microgravity may have implications for human health and disease, including development of methods for repairing damaged tissue from injury or physical impairment.
Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency landed their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at approximately 10:07 p.m. EDT. Russian recovery teams are helping the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and adjust to gravity after their stay in space.
The trio arrived at the International Space Station on Nov. 23, 2014, and spent more than five months conducting research and technology demonstrations. Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova spent 167 days aboard the space station and clocked almost 71 million miles during their time in space.
Wilmore now has logged 178 days in space during two missions, the first of which was on space shuttle mission STS-129 in 2009. Samokutyaev now has spent 331 days in space on two flights, the first of which was on Expedition 27/28 in 2011. This was Serova’s first flight into space.
The station now is occupied by Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA, Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA and Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency. They will remain aboard the station to continue research and maintenance until the remainder of the Expedition 43 crew arrives later this month.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka, are scheduled to launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, March 27 U.S. time (March 28 Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year aboard the complex collecting valuable biomedical data that will inform future deep space, long-duration missions.
Some of the return cargo flown aboard this Soyuz was used as part of research investigations aboard the International Space Station. Researchers on the ground are waiting on the return of 17 area dosimeters from one such study, the Area Passive Dosimeter for Life-Science Experiments in Space (Area PADLES). These area dosimeters continuously monitored radiation throughout Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module. The dosimeters gathered information about space radiation to help manage exposure and provide protection to crew members.
Researchers may use data from Area PADLES to design new radiation monitoring equipment for astronauts and people who work in medical or industrial areas with potential radiation exposure. This knowledge also may help develop better protective measures for the life sciences studies that occur within Kibo. Futhermore, the results from this research could improve design for future spacecraft structures that will shield internal occupants from radiation.
Russian scientists are expecting the return of two incubation containers with planarian worms aboard this Soyuz spacecraft. The Effect of Weightlessness on Processes of Regeneration by Electrophysiological and Morphological Factors (Regeneratsiya-Planaria (Regeneration-Girardia)) investigation is an assessment of the impact of microgravity on the structural and functional regeneration of amputated organs and tissues of planarian worms.
Planarian worms, known for their regenerative processes, can be cut into pieces and each piece can grow back into a complete organism. Study of these organisms in microgravity may have implications for human health and disease, including development of methods for repairing damaged tissue from injury or physical impairment.
After spending 167 days aboard the International Space Station, Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova undocked from the station at 6:44 p.m. EDT to begin their voyage home. Samokutyaev, the Soyuz commander, is at the controls of the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft.
They will perform a separation burn to increase the distance from the station before executing a 4-minute, 41-second deorbit burn at 9:16 p.m. The crew is scheduled to land at 10:07 p.m. southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
The departure of Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova marks the end of Expedition 42. The Expedition 43 crew members, Commander Terry Virts of NASA, Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA and Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos will continue research and maintenance aboard the station and will be joined on March 27 by three additional crew members, NASA’s Scott Kelly and Roscosmos’ Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka.
NASA Television will air live coverage of the Soyuz TMA-14M deorbit burn and landing beginning at 9 p.m.
Here is the timeline for Expedition 42’s landing.
Wednesday, March 11
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9:00 p.m. NASA TV: Expedition 42 Soyuz TMA-14M deorbit burn and landing coverage
At 3:34 p.m. EDT, the Soyuz hatch closed between the International Space Station and the TMA-14M spacecraft. Expedition 42 crew members Barry Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos are preparing to undock at 6:44 p.m. NASA Television will air live coverage of undocking beginning at 6:15 p.m.
The deorbit burn is targeted for 9:16 p.m. and will lead to a landing at 10:07 p.m. southeast of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. NASA TV coverage of deorbit and landing begins at 9 p.m. Watch live at https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.
Today is homecoming day for International Space Station Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore of NASA and Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) as they prepare for landing in their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft at 10:07 p.m. EDT this evening, southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
At this time, there are no concerns or issues being worked.
Wilmore handed over command of the orbiting complex to fellow NASA astronaut Terry Virts in a ceremony on Tuesday, March 10. When the Soyuz undocks, Expedition 43 formally will begin.
NASA Television coverage times for Soyuz activities are listed below. These activities also will stream online at https://www.nasa.gov/ntv.
Here is a timeline of the Expedition 42 undocking and landing.