HOUSTON, Nov. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Three members of the Expedition 33 crew undocked from the
International Space Station and returned safely to Earth Sunday,
wrapping up a mission lasting more than four months.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO
)
Expedition 33 Commander Sunita
Williams of NASA, Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency and Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko undocked their Soyuz TMA-05M
spacecraft from the space station at 4:26
p.m. CST and landed north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 7:56
p.m. (7:56 a.m., Nov. 19, Kazakhstan time). The trio arrived at the
station July 17 and spent 127 days in
space, 125 of which were aboard the orbiting laboratory. This was
the first pre-dawn landing in darkness for a station crew since
April 9, 2006, when Expedition 12
crew members returned.
NASA astronaut Kevin Ford took
command of the space station on Nov.
18. When the Soyuz spacecraft undocked from the space
station, Expedition 34 began. Ford and his crewmates, Russian
cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny
Tarelkin, will tend to the station as a three-man crew for one
month until the arrival of three new crew members, including NASA
astronaut Tom Marshburn.
Expedition 33 advanced the scope of research aboard the station
by conducting a wide range of physical science, Earth observation
and technology demonstration investigations. Research included
testing radiation levels on the orbiting outpost, assessing how
microgravity affects the spinal cord, and investigating dynamic
processes on Earth, such as melting glaciers, seasonal changes and
human impacts on the ecosystem.
The crew also participated in the Integrated Resistance and
Aerobic Training Study-Sprint, which evaluates the use of
high-intensity, low-volume exercise training to minimize loss of
muscle, bone and cardiovascular functions during long-duration
missions. The expedition also managed a number of visits by
international and commercial spacecraft, including the first
contracted commercial resupply flight by SpaceX, and conducted
several challenging spacewalks to sustain the productive operation
of the orbiting complex.
Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko orbited Earth 2,032 times and
traveled 54,090,628 miles. Williams, who has spent 322 days in
space on two missions, now ranks sixth on the all-time U.S.
endurance list, and second all-time for a female. Malenchenko
has spent 642 days in space on his five flights, which ranks him
seventh on the all-time endurance list. During their mission,
Williams and Hoshide performed three spacewalks to replace a
component that relays power from the space station's solar arrays
to its systems and repair an ammonia leak on a station radiator.
With 50 hours and 40 minutes, Williams holds the record for total
cumulative spacewalk time by a female astronaut. Hoshide holds the
record for total cumulative spacewalk time by a JAXA astronaut at
21 hours and 23 minutes.
For more information about the International Space Station and
its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
SOURCE NASA