Don Pettit, NASA’s oldest active-duty astronaut, celebrated his seventieth birthday with two cosmonaut crewmates in a single day Saturday, undocking from the Worldwide House Station and plunging again to Earth in a blaze of re-entry warmth 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 module at 5:57 p.m. EDT, establishing a parachute-assisted touchdown on the steppe of Kazakhstan close to the city of Dzhezkazgan at 9:20 p.m. EDT — 6:20 a.m. native time Sunday, Pettit’s birthday, on the touchdown website.
NASA
Russian restoration crews and NASA personnel rushed to the spacecraft, opened the highest hatch and helped carry the returning crew members to close by recliners the place flight surgeons carried out preliminary well being checks.
Ovchinin and Vagner seemed to be in good spirits, smiling, chatting with assist crews and having fun with drinks and snacks. Pettit, nonetheless, seemed disoriented as he was carried from the descent module, letting his head fall again and shutting his eyes as he was moved to his recliner. He was not seen once more on the touchdown website video.
However there have been no indications of any form of main downside, medical or in any other case. From Kazakhstan, Ovchinin and Vagner will head again to Star Metropolis close to Moscow, whereas Pettit will probably be flown to Houston and the Johnson House Middle for extra detailed exams and the beginning of bodily re-habilitation.
In an April 16 interview with KOIN-TV in Portland, Oregon, Pettit mentioned he had extra issue than most when returning to gravity after an extended keep in house.
“The very first thing I’m going to do when I get to Earth will probably be to empty the contents of my stomach,” he mentioned, prompting laughter. “It’s a physiological thing, it affects different people different ways. Some people can land and go out and eat pizza and dance. When I land, it takes me about 24 hours to feel like I’m a human being again.”
With the on-time touchdown, mission period stood at 220 days and almost 9 hours, spanning 3,520 orbits and 93.3 million miles since launch final Sept. 11 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Ovchinin has now logged 595 days in house over 4 flights, adopted intently by Pettit, whose complete stands at 590 days over 4 flights of his personal. Vagner’s complete after two station visits stands at 416 days.
The world document for many cumulative time in house is held by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who spent almost 1,111 days in orbit over 5 missions. The U.S. document is held by astronaut Peggy Whitson. She spent 675 days in house over 4 flights.
NASA
As for Pettit’s age, John Glenn, the primary American in orbit, was 77 when he flew aboard the house shuttle in 1998 as a NASA spaceflight participant. He holds the document because the oldest particular person to fly in orbit.
The Soyuz crew’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 best way 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 best way for Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit to return to Earth Saturday.
NASA
In a quick ceremony Friday, Ovchinin turned command of the station over to Onishi.
“It’s a great honor for me to accept the command of the ISS,” Onishi mentioned. “I feel so special that I am taking over the command from you because it’s been almost nine years since we met here in 2016 during Expedition 48. At that time, both of us were rookies and here we are two veterans who are ISS commanders.”
“Human space flight is not easy. Only continuous dedication from generation to generation made it possible for human beings to get here. Now today, we have four rookies (on board). I’m sure one day they will come back and become commanders … that’s how we will continue to develop human space flight,” Onishi mentioned.
The ISS has been constantly 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 section to unsure funding, spare components shortages and resupply delays.
“Spaceflight is difficult and very risky,” Wealthy Williams, a member of NASA’s unbiased Aerospace Security Advisory Panel, instructed the group in a public assembly Thursday. “The ISS has entered the riskiest period of its existence.”
“The ISS management, crew and support personnel always make spaceflight look easy. Spaceflight is anything but easy, and the increasing risks attending the ISS program are making it harder,” Williams mentioned.
The air leaks within the Zvezda module’s aft docking compartment are presumably the outcomes of steel fatigue and repeated strain cycles as visiting Soyuz crew ships and Progress cargo freighters come and go.
NASA
“Primary risk mitigation activities at this point include application and patching materials to known cracks and limiting … pressurization cycles to try to limit stress and fatigue,” Williams mentioned. “The ISS program is monitoring this closely, and the panel considers this one of our highest concerns.”
NASA has employed SpaceX to construct a U.S. deorbit automobile, or USDV, to drive the million-pound house station again into the environment 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 utilizing this USDV capability is critical to ensuring that the deorbit debris risk meets the established government public safety standards,” Williams mentioned. “If there is a deorbit of the ISS before the USDV is delivered, the risk to the public from ISS breakup debris will increase by orders of magnitude.”
He mentioned NASA and Russian house officers are working “to address the challenges associated with achieving a safe deorbit capability, both for end-of-life as well as a risk-managed deorbit for contingencies.”
The key downside dealing with the ISS is what Williams known as “a large ISS budget shortfall.” NASA’s fiscal 2024 finances included almost $1 billion for station operations and upkeep with one other $1.6 billion earmarked for crew launches and resupply missions.
“It is critical to maintain adequate budget and resources until the vehicle has safely re-entered, not only to assure safety of day-to-day operations in a high-risk environment, but also to ensure controlled, safe deorbit within debris footprint requirements for the sake of public safety,” Williams mentioned.
In abstract, he mentioned, “the panel appreciates the demonstrated operational excellence of the ISS program, but remains deeply concerned about the increasing and cascading risks attending the program over the next several years.”
