Soyuz Packed for Return While Cygnus Unloaded After Capture

The six-member Expedition 49 crew poses for a portrait in the Destiny lab module. (Front row, from left) Kate Rubins, Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi. (Back row) Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko.

One spacecraft is being packed and readied for the return of three humans to Earth while a cargo craft is being unloaded and settling in for a one-month stay. The Expedition 49 trio of Commander Anatoly Ivanishin and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi are packing gear and preparing for their return to Earth Saturday night. The veteran cosmonaut and two first-time astronauts will wrap up their mission after 115 days in space.

They will parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan inside the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft. The ride back to Earth takes about 3-1/2 hours after undocking from the International Space Station. The Orbital ATK Cygnus is the latest cargo ship to arrive at the International Space Station. It was captured and installed to the Harmony module on Sunday Oct. 23 after a six-day flight that began in Virginia.

The hatches were opened the day it arrived and the crew began unloading over 5,100 pounds of crew supplies and science gear. Cygnus is scheduled to depart in mid-November and release a set of nanosatellites before scientists remotely set fire inside the spacecraft for the Saffire-II experiment.

Crew Swaps Command and Readies for Homecoming

The six Expedition 49 crew members wave to mission controllers moments after cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin (right foreground) swapped command with NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough (left foreground) during a traditional Change of Command Ceremony.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough assumed command of the International Space Station from Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian Federal Space Agency at 3:37 p.m. EDT Friday in a traditional Change of Command ceremony. Expedition 50 will officially begin under Kimbrough’s command when the Soyuz spacecraft carrying Ivanishin, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency undocks from the space station on Saturday, October 29. NASA Television will air live coverage of the departure and landing activities, beginning at 4:45 p.m. Saturday. Hatch closure on the Soyuz is scheduled for 5:15 p.m.

The trio is scheduled to return to Earth Saturday at 11:59 p.m. EDT (9:59 a.m. Oct. 30, Kazakhstan time). They will land in their Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. Together, the Expedition 49 crew members contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanity’s only orbiting laboratory.

Expedition 49 Departs Station, Begins Ride Home

The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft departs the International Space Station on time carrying three Expedition 49 crew members back to Earth.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency undocked from the International Space Station at 8:35 p.m. EDT to begin their journey home. Ivanishin, the Soyuz commander, is at the controls of the MS-01 spacecraft. The trio’s spacecraft completed the first flight to station for the upgraded Soyuz MS-01 when it launched in July.

The crew is scheduled to land at 11:59 p.m. southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

As the Soyuz MS-01 undocked, Expedition 50 officially began on the station under the command of NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough. He and Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, will operate the station for three weeks until the arrival of three new crew members next month.

Expedition 49 Lands After 115 Day Mission

Expedition 49 crew members Kate Rubins, Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi are surrounded by support personnel moments after landing in Kazakhstan after 115 days in space.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency safely landed their Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft in Kazakhstan southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan at 11:58 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Oct. 29. Russian recovery teams are helping the crew exit the Soyuz spacecraft and adjust to gravity after their stay in space. The trio will be transported by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan where they will split up, with Rubins and Onishi returning to Houston in a NASA jet, while Ivanishin will be flown back to his training base at Star City, Russia.

During her time on the orbiting complex, Rubins ventured outside the confines of the station for two spacewalks. During the first one Aug. 19, she and NASA astronaut Jeff Williams installed the first international docking adapter. Outfitted with a host of sensors and systems, the adapter’s main purpose is to provide a port for commercial spacecraft to bring astronauts to the station in the future. Its first users are expected to be the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft now in development in partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. During her second spacewalk Sept. 1, Rubins and Williams retracted a spare thermal control radiator and installed two new high-definition cameras.

Together, the Expedition 49 crew members contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the world-class orbiting laboratory during their 115 days in space.

Expedition 49 Welcomes Three New Crew Members

The new six-member Expedition 49 crew gathers in the Zvezda service module. The three newest arrivals (front row from left) Andrey Borisenko, Sergey Ryzhikov and Shane Kimbrough talk to family members and mission officials back on Earth. In the back row from left are, Kate Rubins, Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi.

Three new crew members are aboard the International Space Station. The hatches on the space station and Soyuz MS-02 opened at 8:20 a.m. EDT, marking the arrival to the orbiting laboratory for NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Their Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft docked with the station’s Poisk module at 5:52 a.m. At the time of docking, the space station was flying 251 miles over southern Russia.

The trio join Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who have been aboard the complex since July. The incoming crew will spend a little more than four months together aboard the space station, returning to Earth in late February. The crew members will contribute to more than 250 research experiments ongoing aboard the space station, in diverse fields such as biology, Earth Science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.