How Expedition 43 navigated the final journey from the International Space Station
In short: After 199 days orbiting the Earth, the crew of Expedition 43 began their high-stakes descent. From a precise separation burn to a critical deorbit maneuver, every second of their voyage home was calculated to ensure a safe landing in the Kazakh steppe.
The departure of the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft on June 11 marked the conclusion of Expedition 43. The crew—comprising NASA’s Terry Virts, ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti, and Roscosmos’s Anton Shkaplerov—undocked from the International Space Station at 6:20 a.m. EDT. A four-week postponement occurred because Roscosmos needed to probe why the unmanned Progress 59 supply vessel vanished during late April.
The journey home required a series of highly choreographed maneuvers. Following undocking, the crew performed a separation burn to move away from the station. This was followed by a critical deorbit burn, lasting exactly 4 minutes and 35 seconds, which began at 8:51 a.m. This maneuver is essential for altering the spacecraft's trajectory for atmospheric reentry.
The descent involved rapid transitions through the atmosphere. At 9:18 a.m., the Soyuz modules separated at an altitude of 87 miles, followed by atmospheric entry at 62 miles at 9:20 a.m. After the command to open the parachute was issued at an altitude of 6.5 miles, the crew landed southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 9:43 a.m. During their 199-day mission, the crew traveled more than 84 million miles, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 24.
As Expedition 43 concluded, the station transitioned to Expedition 44. This incoming crew, including Gennady Padalka, Scott Kelly, and Mikhail Kornienko, was set to continue research and maintenance, eventually joined by Kjell Lindgren, Oleg Kononenko, and Kimiya Yui.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: ISS Expedition 43 Farewell, Hatch Closure and Undocking from the International Space Station
- Also: Expedition 43 Undocks and Begins Voyage Home - NASA
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