Crew Boards Soyuz Crew Ship and Closes Hatches

Crew Boards Soyuz Crew Ship and Closes Hatches

The Expedition 62 crew prepares to enter their Soyuz crew ship
The Expedition 62 crew prepares to enter their Soyuz crew ship after saying farewell to their station crew mates.

At 6:44 p.m. EDT, the hatch closed between the Soyuz spacecraft and the International Space Station in preparation for undocking. NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, are scheduled to undock their Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft at 9:53 p.m.

NASA Television will air live coverage of the undocking beginning at 9:30 p.m.; their landing in Kazakhstan is targeted for approximately 1:16 a.m. Friday.

At the time of undocking, Expedition 63 will begin aboard the station, with Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner comprising a three-person crew until the planned arrival of NASA’s Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon on the Demo-2 flight test.

Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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Live Now on NASA TV, Station Trio Says Farewell

Live Now on NASA TV, Station Trio Says Farewell

Expedition 62 crewmembers pose for a portrait
Expedition 62 crewmembers (from left) Andrew Morgan, Oleg Skripochka and Jessica Meir pose for a portrait before their return to Earth.

NASA Television and the agency’s website are now broadcasting live coverage of the International Space Station’s Expedition 62 crew as they are preparing for their return to Earth.

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos are saying their farewells to NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Soon Meir Morgan, and Skripochka will board their Soyuz spacecraft and close the hatches between the Soyuz and the space station. Hatches are expected to close at about 6:30 p.m. EDT for a series of leak checks before the Soyuz undocks and returns to Earth early Friday morning.

Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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Station Crew Swaps Command, Trio Ready for Earth Return

Station Crew Swaps Command, Trio Ready for Earth Return

The six station crewmembers join each other for a group hug
Clockwise from bottom left are station crewmembers Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner, Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka.

NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscosmos are preparing to depart the International Space Station Thursday evening in their Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft and return to Earth.

Today the Expedition 62 crew conducted a change of command ceremony in which Skripochka ceremonially handed command of the orbiting laboratory to newly arrived NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy. Expedition 63, a three-person crew of Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, begins when the Soyuz departs the station Thursday.

NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage beginning at 6 p.m. EDT April 16 as the departing crew members say farewell and close the hatches between their Soyuz and the spacecraft at about 6:30 p.m.

NASA coverage will resume at 9:30 p.m. prior to the trio undocking the Soyuz from the aft port of the station’s Zvezda service module at 9:53 p.m. At midnight, NASA TV will return to provide coverage during the deorbit burn at 12:22 a.m. Friday, April 17, that will put the Soyuz on course for a parachute-assisted landing at 1:16 a.m. (11:16 a.m. Kazakhstan time) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan.

Follow along with landing activities and get more information about the mission at: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/. Learn more about space station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

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Crew Nears Departure Ahead of Busy Space Traffic

Crew Nears Departure Ahead of Busy Space Traffic

Astronaut Chris Cassidy and cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (left) will assume station command from Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka (right) today.

Three Expedition 62 crewmembers are getting ready to head home before U.S., Russian and Japanese spaceship traffic ramps up. Meanwhile, human research activities continue full speed ahead aboard the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy will assume command and control of the orbiting lab today at 4:55 p.m. EDT during the Change of Command ceremony live on NASA TV. Commander Oleg Skripochka will turn the keys over to Cassidy before leaving the station on Thursday at 9:53 p.m. EDT when Expedition 63 officially begins.

Cassidy will stay onboard the station until October with Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. This is third station mission for Cassidy and Ivanishin while Vagner is beginning his first.

Skripochka is returning to Earth with NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan inside the Soyuz MS-15 crew ship. The trio will parachute to landing in Kazakhstan on Friday at 1:16 a.m. (11:16 a.m. Kazakh time). Morgan will have lived in space for 272 days while Meir and Skripochka will have orbited Earth for 205 days.

The crew collected blood, saliva and urine samples today before stowing them in a science freezer. Scientists on the ground will analyze the samples for markers indicating the effects of microgravity on humans. The orbital residents also contributed to nutrition studies today to understand the crew’s appetite for the station’s food menu and the health impacts of their space diet.

The next spaceship to visit the station is planned for April 24 when Russia’s Progress 75 space freighter launches for a docking to the station’s Zvezda service module. The U.S. Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo craft will finish its station cargo mission on May 11 when the Canadarm2 robotic arm removes it from the Unity module and releases it back into space. Japan is targeting May 20 for the launch of its HTV-9 Kounotori resupply ship when it will begin a five-day trip to the orbital lab.

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Mark Garcia

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Human Research, Crew Departure Preps aboard Busy Station

Human Research, Crew Departure Preps aboard Busy Station

NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir
NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir participate in Earth photography activities inside the Destiny laboratory module.

The six crewmembers aboard the International Space Station continued advanced space research today promoting health for humans on and off Earth. The crew will split up at the end of the week when the Expedition 62 trio undocks and returns to Earth.

Scientists are looking at how human muscles adapt to microgravity for the Myotones space biology study. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy began the first of his four sessions for the human research experiment today. He marked muscle points on his skin then used a specialized device to measure his muscles’ biochemical properties. The research could prepare astronauts for longer space missions and help people on Earth with muscle conditions.

His two crewmates, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, are getting used to life on the orbiting lab while maintaining Russian station hardware. The cosmonauts are deactivating communication systems in the new Soyuz MS-16 crew ship and getting up to speed on their complement of space research.

NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan contributed to different experiments today as they complete their final week in space. Meir collected her saliva samples for microbial analysis then documented her thoughts about the station’s food menu. Morgan cleaned and closed out life science hardware that housed live mice that returned to Earth on the last SpaceX Dragon cargo mission.

The two astronauts are also getting ready to end their mission with Commander Oleg Skripochka and return to Earth on Friday. The trio is packing the Soyuz MS-15 crew ship with cargo and personal items. They will undock Thursday at 9:53 p.m. EDT and parachute to landing in Kazakhstan less than three-and-half hours later.

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Mark Garcia

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