Soyuz MS-19 to land in Kazakhstan amid tense U.S.-Russian relations

Date:
Tue, 29 Mar 2022 22:12:29 +0000

Description:
At 07:21 UTC on March 30, Soyuz MS-19 will undock from the International
Space Station The post Soyuz MS-19 to land in Kazakhstan amid tense U.S.-Russian relations appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

At 07:21 UTC on March 30, Soyuz MS-19 will undock from the International
Space Station (ISS) and subsequently land on the Kazakh Steppe around 11:29 UTC later that day. This will conclude a five-month mission for the spacecraft, and the second-ever one-year mission by an American astronaut.

The landing crew of Soyuz MS-19 consists of Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov serving as the commander and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos as well
as American astronaut Mark Vande Hei of NASA. Both Dubrov and Vande Hei launched on Soyuz MS-18 on April 9, 2021, and have had long-term stays at the ISS.



Soyuz MS-19s landing comes as Russian-American tensions have increased following Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24. Vande Hei is to be the last American to fly onboard a Russian spacecraft for the time being, per the current geopolitical situation.

Although there were public rumors that Vande Hei may not fly back on the Soyuz, Joel Montelboano the ISS Program Manager said that Vande Hei would land per the original plan, on the Russian Soyuz.

Upon landing, Vande Hei will have spent 355 days straight in space more than any other American astronaut. This beats the previous single-flight record made by Scott Kelly in 2016, who spent 340 days in space. Other notable American astronauts who have made long-duration spaceflights include
Christina Koch , Peggy Whitson, and Drew Morgan . Astronaut Mark Vande Hei ( @Astro_Sabot ) will soon return home after completing a record-breaking 355 consecutive days on the @space_station .

He joins 4 others who have spent extended time in space. His mission will
help NASA prepare for future #Artemis missions to the Moon. pic.twitter.com/SFlzdHn2SG

NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 12, 2022



For Shkaplerov who was born in Sevastopol, Ukraine SSR (Crimea) Soyuz MS-19 has been his fourth spaceflight. He served as the station Commander for Expedition 66. See Also Soyuz MS-19 Mission L2 Russian Section L2 ISS Section Click here to Join L2

This was the first spaceflight for Dubrov who, like Vande Hei, also spent 355 days in space.

Soyuz MS-19 launched on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 5, 2021. The spacecraft carried
Shkaplerov along with Russian spaceflight participants Klim Shipenko and
Yulia Peresild.

Both Shipenko and Peresild flew to the ISS to film a movie called The Challenge, where Shipenko was the director and Peresild was the actress.

Soyuz MS-19 was designed so that it could be controlled by a single cosmonaut
in this case Anton Shkaplerov. This was done so that the training time could be reduced for the spaceflight participants on the journey to the ISS .

Shipenko and Peresild returned to Earth 12 days later on Soyuz MS-18. Soyuz MS-19 lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 4, 2021. Credit:
Roscosmos

The Soyuz MS-21 crew, which includes Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov, arrived at the ISS on March 18 . They will replace the three-person international crew departing on Soyuz MS-19.

Undocking Prior to undocking, Shkaplerov will issue the command to the Soyuz spacecraft to unlatch from Rassvets docking port. Next, the hooks on the docking ring (the interface between the Rassvet Module and Soyuz) will begin to open. This will be followed by undocking and physical separation a minute later at 07:21 UTC.

When the spacecraft separates, springs in the docking system will cause the spacecraft to slowly move away from the Rassvet module at a rate of 0.12 m/s. Just like docking, the Kurs-Na docking system will be used.

With the departure of Soyuz, Expedition 67 onboard the ISS will officially begin.

Separation Burn-1 will occur next and last for eight seconds. This will be followed by Separation Burn-2, with a duration of 15 seconds. This burn will cause Soyuz MS-19 to depart the Keep Out Sphere, which is an imaginary 200-meter sphere around the ISS.

After departing the ISS area, the Soyuz crew will begin a period of free flight.

Deorbit and Landing Prior to deorbit, the Soyuz spacecraft will reorient itself to retrograde. The spacecraft will then be commanded to fire its
single S5.80 engine, located on the propulsion module of the spacecraft. The S5.80 is a pressure-fed engine that runs on dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), which are toxic hypergolic fuels.

The burn will last for around four minutes. After the burn, the spacecraft
and its crew will then be committed to reentry and landing.

As Soyuz MS-19 travels on a northeast sub-orbital trajectory over Egypt, explosive bolts on the spacecraft will fire, separating the orbital and propulsion modules from the descent module, where the crew will be located. Soyuz landing profile. Credit: NASA TV.

At this point, the spacecraft will be around 140 km above the Earth.

As the spacecraft descends above the Caspian Sea, the descent module will enter the plasma regime as it reenters the atmosphere. During this time period, the crew will be in a blackout period, where the plasma built up around the vehicle will block communications between the crew and ground controllers at Roscosmos Mission Control in Korolev, Russia.

After passing through the atmosphere, the crew will regain radio contact with both mission control and recovery forces stationed around the recovery zone.

To slow the vehicle further, two pilot parachutes will be deployed around 10 km in altitude following the deployment of the parachute cover on the side of the Descent module. Next, the drogue parachute will be deployed prior to the deployment of the single main parachute.

At 5 km altitude, the heat shield will detach, similar to the Boeing CST-100 Starliner . The spacecraft will also vent remaining propellants. Before landing, the seats that the crew will be sitting in will rise up to cushion the eventual landing.

Prior to landing, the solid motors on the bottom of the Descent module will fire at an altitude of 0.7 meters above the ground to cushion the impact. The crew is scheduled to land on the Kazakh Steppe at 11:29 UTC. The Russian recovery vehicles that will be used for recovery. Credit: NASA TV.

After landing, Russian ground recovery forces will extract Shkaplerov,
Dubrov, and Vande Hei from the landed Soyuz spacecraft.

After initial post-flight medical checks, the Soyuz MS-19 crew will go their separate ways. Shkaplerov and Dubrov will likely take a flight back to Star City, Russia near Moscow.

Vande Hei, on the other hand, will board a NASA jet and will make the journey back to Houston, Texas along with other NASA personnel. Unlike similar journeys in the past, the NASA jet will have to avoid Russian airspace.

(Lead image: Soyuz MS-16 lands on the Kazakh Steppe on October 22, 2020. Credit: NASA)

The post Soyuz MS-19 to land in Kazakhstan amid tense U.S.-Russian relations appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/03/soyuz-ms-19-undock/


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