On the eve of his seventieth birthday, Don Pettit, NASA’s oldest active-duty astronaut, and two cosmonaut crewmates undocked from the Worldwide House Station Saturday and equipped for a fiery in a single day plunge again to Earth to shut out a 220-day expedition.
Pettit, Soyuz MS-26/72S commander Alexey Ovchinin and flight engineer Ivan Vagner undocked from the Russian Rassvet docking port at 5:57 p.m. Jap Time, organising a parachute-assisted touchdown on the steppe of Kazakhstan close to the city of Dzhezkazgan at 9:20 p.m. native time, or 6:20 a.m. Jap Time Sunday, Pettit’s birthday.
NASA 
Russian restoration crews and NASA personnel had been deployed close by to assist the returning crew out of the Soyuz descent module with preliminary medical checks and satellite tv for pc cellphone calls to household and associates as they start their readjustment to gravity after seven months in weightlessness.
Assuming an on-time touchdown, mission length will stand at 220 days and practically 9 hours, spanning 3,520 orbits and 93.3 million miles since launch final Sept. 11 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
At landing, Ovchinin may have logged 595 days in area over 4 flights, adopted carefully by Pettit, whose whole will stand at 590 days over 4 flights of his personal. Vagner’s whole can be 416 days aloft throughout two area station visits.
The world report for many cumulative time in area is held by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who spent practically 1,111 days in orbit over 5 missions. The U.S. report is held by astronaut Peggy Whitson. She spent 675 days in area over 4 flights.
NASA 
As for Pettit’s age, John Glenn, the primary American in orbit, was 77 when he flew aboard the area shuttle in 1998 as a NASA spaceflight participant. He holds the report because the oldest particular person to fly in orbit.
From Kazakhstan, Ovchinin and Vagner will head again to Star Metropolis close to Moscow whereas Pettit can be flown to the Johnson House Middle in Houston for extra detailed exams and start his bodily rehabilitation.
The trio’s return to Earth marked the ultimate chapter in an prolonged crew rotation that started with launch of SpaceX Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on March 14.
Crew 10’s arrival on the station cleared the way in which for Crew 9 commander Nick Hague, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams to return to Earth 4 days later.
The Russians then launched replacements for Pettit’s crew — Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky and NASA’s Jonny Kim — on April 8, clearing the way in which for Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit to return to Earth Saturday.
NASA 
In a short ceremony Friday, Ovchinin turned command of the station over to Onishi.
“It is an amazing honor for me to just accept the command of the ISS,” Onishi stated. “I really feel so particular that I’m taking on the command from you as a result of it has been nearly 9 years since we met right here in 2016 throughout Expedition 48. At the moment, each of us had been rookies and right here we’re two veterans who’re ISS commanders.”
“Human area flight will not be simple. Solely steady dedication from era to era made it potential for human beings to get right here. Now at present, we’ve 4 rookies (on board). I am certain in the future they are going to come again and develop into commanders … that is how we’ll proceed to develop human area flight,” Onishi stated.
The ISS has been repeatedly staffed by rotating crews since Nov. 2, 2000. Scheduled for retirement in 5 years, the lab is dealing with issues on a number of fronts, starting from air leaks within the Russian phase to unsure funding, spare elements shortages and resupply delays.
“Spaceflight is troublesome and really dangerous,” Wealthy Williams, a member of NASA’s impartial Aerospace Security Advisory Panel, instructed the group in a public assembly Thursday. “The ISS has entered the riskiest interval of its existence.”
“The ISS administration, crew and help personnel all the time make spaceflight look simple. Spaceflight is something however simple, and the growing dangers attending the ISS program are making it tougher,” Williams stated.
The air leaks within the Zvezda module’s aft docking compartment are presumably the outcomes of metallic fatigue and repeated strain cycles as visiting Soyuz crew ships and Progress cargo freighters come and go.
NASA 
“Major danger mitigation actions at this level embrace utility and patching supplies to identified cracks and limiting … pressurization cycles to attempt to restrict stress and fatigue,” Williams stated. “The ISS program is monitoring this carefully, and the panel considers this one in all our highest considerations.”
NASA has employed SpaceX to construct a U.S. deorbit automobile, or USDV, to drive the million-pound area station again into the ambiance in 2030 to make sure it breaks up over the southern Pacific Ocean, removed from transport lanes and populated areas. The USDV is predicted to reach on the lab in 2029.
“Delivering and using this USDV functionality is crucial to making sure that the deorbit particles danger meets the established authorities public security requirements,” Williams stated. “If there’s a deorbit of the ISS earlier than the USDV is delivered, the danger to the general public from ISS breakup particles will improve by orders of magnitude.”
He stated NASA and Russian area officers are working “to deal with the challenges related to attaining a protected deorbit functionality, each for end-of-life in addition to a risk-managed deorbit for contingencies.”
The foremost downside dealing with the ISS is what Williams referred to as “a big ISS funds shortfall.” NASA’s fiscal 2024 funds included practically $1 billion for station operations and upkeep with one other $1.6 billion earmarked for crew launches and resupply missions.
“It’s crucial to keep up ample funds and assets till the automobile has safely re-entered, not solely to guarantee security of day-to-day operations in a high-risk setting, but in addition to make sure managed, protected deorbit inside particles footprint necessities for the sake of public security,” Williams stated.
In abstract, he stated, “the panel appreciates the demonstrated operational excellence of the ISS program, however stays deeply involved in regards to the growing and cascading dangers attending this system over the following a number of years.”
