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| The Soyuz spacecraft carrying three Expedition 33 crew members landed in Kazakhstan at 8:56 p.m. EST (7:56 a.m. Monday, Kazakhstan time). [PHOTO: NASA TV/Screen-grab] |
Washington: Three members of the Expedition 33 crew undocked from the
International Space Station and returned safely to Earth Sunday, wrapping up a
mission lasting more than four months.
Expedition 33
Commander Sunita Williams of NASA, Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko
undocked their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft from the space station at 4:26 p.m. CST
and landed north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 7:56 p.m. (7:56 a.m., Nov. 19,
Kazakhstan time). The trio arrived at the station July 17 and spent 127 days in
space, 125 of which were aboard the orbiting laboratory. This was the first
pre-dawn landing in darkness for a station crew since April 9, 2006, when
Expedition 12 crew members returned.
NASA astronaut Kevin
Ford took command of the space station on Nov. 18. When the Soyuz spacecraft
undocked from the space station, Expedition 34 began. Ford and his crewmates,
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, will tend to the station
as a three-man crew for one month until the arrival of three new crew members,
including NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn.
Expedition 33
advanced the scope of research aboard the station by conducting a wide range of
physical science, Earth observation and technology demonstration
investigations. Research included testing radiation levels on the orbiting
outpost, assessing how microgravity affects the spinal cord, and investigating
dynamic processes on Earth, such as melting glaciers, seasonal changes and
human impacts on the ecosystem.
The crew also
participated in the Integrated Resistance and Aerobic Training Study-Sprint,
which evaluates the use of high-intensity, low-volume exercise training to
minimize loss of muscle, bone and cardiovascular functions during long-duration
missions. The expedition also managed a number of visits by international and
commercial spacecraft, including the first contracted commercial resupply
flight by SpaceX, and conducted several challenging spacewalks to sustain the
productive operation of the orbiting complex.
Williams, Hoshide and
Malenchenko orbited Earth 2,032 times and traveled 54,090,628 miles. Williams,
who has spent 322 days in space on two missions, now ranks sixth on the
all-time U.S. endurance list, and second all-time for a female. Malenchenko has
spent 642 days in space on his five flights, which ranks him seventh on the
all-time endurance list. During their mission, Williams and Hoshide performed
three spacewalks to replace a component that relays power from the space
station's solar arrays to its systems and repair an ammonia leak on a station
radiator. With 50 hours and 40 minutes, Williams holds the record for total
cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. Hoshide holds the record for
total cumulative spacewalk time by a JAXA astronaut at 21 hours and 23 minutes.
Watch post-landing video:
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Watch post-landing video:
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