After Six Months In Space, ISS Crew Nine Touches Down
After traveling more than 78 million
miles aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 9
Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke returned
to Earth Sunday.
Returning with them was Russian Space Forces Test Cosmonaut Yuri
Shargin, who had spent eight days aboard the orbiting complex
conducting research.
After a flawless descent by the ISS Soyuz 8 spacecraft, Padalka,
Fincke (right, in videophone image just after touchdown) and
Shargin landed on target in north-central Kazakhstan, about 43
miles northeast of the town of Arkalyk, at 2036 EDT. Recovery
forces arrived at the site within minutes of the touchdown.
Padalka and Fincke spent 187 days, 21 hours and 17 minutes in
space. They launched on April 18, on the same Soyuz spacecraft that
brought them home. For six months, the pair maintained systems and
conducted scientific research onboard the Station.
Hi! I'm Your Daddy!
Fincke's return also is his first opportunity to meet his
four-month-old daughter, Tarali Paulina, born June 18 while he was
in space. The crew's families are expected to greet them upon their
arrival at Star City, Russia, a few hours after landing. Padalka
and Fincke will remain in Star City for several weeks of
post-flight debriefings and medical exams before returning to
Houston in mid-November.
Among their accomplishments on the Station was an unprecedented
spacewalking repair, using Russian spacesuits and gear to replace a
US circuit breaker, restoring power to a US gyroscope. Fincke also
performed some of the most complex US spacesuit repairs ever
accomplished in orbit, replacing water pumps in the suits' cooling
systems, equipment not designed for in-flight repairs. They
completed a total of four spacewalks, including sorties that
prepared the Station for the arrival of a new European cargo ship
next year.
Aboard the Station, the Expedition 10 crew, Commander and NASA
Station Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan
Sharipov, are beginning a six-month mission that will include two
spacewalks and preparations for the return of Space Shuttle
flights. Expedition 10 is scheduled to return to Earth on April 25,
2005.
Chiao and Sharipov will have light duty for the next three days
as they rest after completing a busy handover period. For the past
week, they have been learning about Station operations from the two
men who called the ship home since April. Padalka and Fincke
briefed Chiao and Sharipov on day-to-day operations and gave them
hands-on opportunities at Station maintenance: Sharipov joined
Padalka in completing repairs to the Elektron oxygen-generating
system, and Chiao helped Fincke with the maintenance on the US
spacesuits. During his time aboard, Shargin completed a program of
scientific experiments.