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– Two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut launched World Space Week Thursday (October 4th) on their way home after a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, both of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, landed aboard the Russian space shuttle Soyuz MS-08 in the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan at 7:44 am (EDT). 11:44 GMT or 17:44 Kazakhstan local time). The landing coincided with the 61st anniversary of the launch of the world's first satellite, Sputnik, by the former Soviet Union and the beginning of the space era.
The Soyuz descent module in the form of a drop of gum was met on the ground by Russian recovery forces to help Artemyev, Feustel and Arnold get out of their capsule and begin their readjustment to gravity. The trio seemed in a good mood while he was breathing for the first time in 197 days, Artemyev savoring even a big carrot and the scents of a cantaloupe and a big squash.
Artemyev, Feustel and Arnold began their journey back to Earth about three hours before landing with the Soyuz MS-08 unstacking of the Poisk module from the space station at 03:57 EDT (0757 GMT). Their departure marked the official end of Expedition 56, the 56th contingent of crews of the station since the beginning of Expedition 1 in November 2000.
Before leaving the vicinity of the space station, the crew of the Soyuz MS-08 flew over the complex to allow Feustel, temporarily repositioned in the orbital module of Soyuz, to take pictures for the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first component of the International Space Station in November.
Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA), arrived at the station on June 8 and being part of the crew of the Expedition 56 under the leadership of Feustal, are still in the vanguard in orbit.
Feustel, who surrendered control at Gerst on Wednesday (3 October), presented his successor with a pledge of his common field of study and time on the International Space Station (ISS).
"I would like to offer you something to remember from the bond we both share as geophysicists," Feustel told Gerst during the brief change of command ceremony. "It is an anorthosite phenocrystal of Mount Erebus in Antarctica. I know you have a lot of them and some have been flying in space, but certainly not those given by another geophysicist and ISS commander while they were in space.
Feustel also gave Gerst an Expedition 56 medallion and continued a tradition by handing him a symbolic key to the space station, a tool used to open and close the Soyuz hatch.
"Thank you for 1,850 orbits of friendship and great achievements together," said Gerst, addressing Feustel, Arnold and Artemyev. "Together, we have accomplished a lot, we have grown plants, mixed concrete, tested anti-cancer drugs, protein crystals, checked granules, measured the Earth's magnetic field, generated Bose Einstein condensate, tested alloys metal and many, many more things. "
"With over 350 experiences credited in this expedition, we should all be proud of our achievements," said Feustel.
In addition to their scientific research, the teammates of Expedition 55/56 conducted four extravehicular activities (EVA). Feustel and Arnold left the station three times together in March, May and June to set up the communications equipment, move a failed pumping unit, and continue preparations for the future arrival of the commercial crew space shuttle. Their first outing marked the 100th spacewalk by crew members living aboard the ISS.
In August, Artemyev and Prokopyev organized an EVA to deploy four small satellites, reconfigure antennas on the Zvezda service module and retrieve and install experiments.
Inside the space station, Feustel played the first game of tennis in space as part of a proximity project with the US Tennis Association. He recorded a video clip with Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. Arnold, a former professor of mathematics and science in college, sued and concluded NASA's Education Year by recording in particular lessons that Christa McAuliffe, professor in space, had planned to follow aboard Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986.
It was the second space flight of Artemyev and Arnold and the third of Feustel. Artemyev has now spent 366 days in space, Arnold has spent 210 days on Earth and Feustel has accumulated 226 days of life and work in orbit.
Now on Earth, the three teammates of the Soyuz MS-08 will return to their respective space agencies after a brief helicopter flight to the Kazakh city of Karaganda for a traditional welcoming ceremony. From there, Artemyev will leave for Star City, outside Moscow, while Feustal and Arnold will return by NASA jet to Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Aleksey Ovchinin of Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Nick Hague, two other members of Expedition 57, are scheduled to visit the space station aboard Soyuz MS-10 on 11 October.
Soyuz MS-08 was the 54th Russian spacecraft Soyuz to travel to the International Space Station. It has traveled a total of 134 million kilometers on 3,152 terrestrial orbits.
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