Expedition 36 Crew Return to Earth After 5 Months in Space

A trio of astronauts and cosmonauts who have been living and working aboard the International Space Station for the past five months, have successfully returned to Earth.

The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft, carrying Soyuz commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin, and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan at 3:29 a.m. Irish Standard Time on September 10.

Yurchikin and Vinogradov say goodbye before hatch closure

Prior to their departure from the station Expedition 36 commander Vinogradov handed command of the orbiting outpost to fellow space flight veteran Fyodor Yurchikin on September 9th. Yurchikin, who now holds the reigns of the ISS for the second time in his career, paid tribute to the Expedition 36 crew, and looked forward to all the work that will be done as part of Expedition 37;


"We want to continue to do our job well" said Yurchikin.

"We would like to continue this programme. This programme is our future!"


Then the time came when the departing trio said their farewells to the rest of the astronauts who will still be living & working aboard the station; ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg; before closing the hatches between the Soyuz and the space station at 9:19 p.m.

With hatches closed, Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin donned their Sokol launch and entry suits they would wear for landing.

Undocking occurred at 12:38 a.m. as the Soyuz slowly moved away from the International Space Station, marking the official beginning of Expedition 37.

A series of deorbit burns were performed at 3:05 a.m. to take the Soyuz out of Earth orbit and back into the atmosphere. The spacecraft's parachutes then opened, before a "Soft landing" of the Soyuz occurred at 3:58 a.m. southeast of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz landing 

Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy return to Earth having spent 166 days in space.

Shortly after landing, search and rescue teams surrounded the charred Soyuz, before Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin were extracted one by one from the spacecraft, and were then put into their own reclining chairs, while being attended to by medical staff. After a few phone calls to loved ones and celebratory photographs were taken, the three newly-returned space farers were lifted to a nearby medical tent for some tests.

Expedition 37 will comprise of a three person crew until the end of the month. Waiting back on Earth is the Soyuz TMA-10M crew, made up of cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazanskiy, and NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins. All three will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25.

Progress 52 Resupply Ship Docks to ISS

An unpiloted Russian cargo ship carrying nearly three tons of supplies for the Expedition 36 crew docked to the International Space Station less than six hours after launch Saturday.

The ISS Progress 52 resupply ship docked with the station’s Pirs docking compartment at 10:26 p.m. EDT, delivering 1,212 pounds of propellant, 42 pounds of oxygen, 62 pounds of air, 926 pounds of water and 3,395 pounds of spare parts, maintenance equipment and experiment hardware. Included in the cargo are tools identified for possible repairs to the U.S. spacesuits on the station. At the time of docking Progress 52 and the station were flying 260 miles over the Pacific Ocean approaching the west coast of South America.

The space freighter launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:45 p.m. EDT (2:45 a.m. Sunday Kazakhstan time) on an accelerated, four-orbit journey to rendezvous with the station. At the time of launch, the station was flying 260 miles over southern Russia near the border between Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

 See the launch of the Progress 52 here

Progress 52 Approaches the ISS prior to docking
credit: NASA

The docking port on Pirs was previously occupied by the ISS Progress 50 cargo craft, which departed Thursday after spending five months at the station.

The crew will conduct a series of leak checks at the Pirs docking interface before opening the Progress hatch to begin the long process of unloading the cargo.

Once emptied of its cargo, Progress 52 will be filled with trash and station discards and then undocked later this year for a destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

I Feel Like I've Been Looking Down at Our Fragile Oasis for the Past 5 Months

Back in December 2012, a trio of astronauts and cosmonauts launched from Kazakhstan bound for the International Space Station. They promised shots of our Earth from the vantage point of 250 miles above our heads. They didn't disappoint!

"The Moon, newly risen, perfect over a flowing blanket of cloud" Credit: Chris Hadfield

Since arriving at the orbiting outpost almost five months ago, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut and Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield, and Expedition 34/35 Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn of NASA, have sent social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ into a frenzy, by posting around a dozen photos each day of completely random places scattered across on Earth. One minute Marshburn might post a picture of  Mount Etna in Italy puffing out smoke and gas from its vent, and a couple minutes later Hadfield might give us all a look at what Niagara Falls looks like from the space station.

For me, I have never felt so up to date and involved in what is being done on station. Every morning before I went to school, the first thing I would do would be to check Commander Hadfield's Twitter feed and get a small digest of what work would be conducted for the day on the orbiting laboratory- all summed up in 140 characters. Marvelous! What more could you want when you're rushing out the door!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. I mean when these photos make national headlines all over the world you know that there's something special going on. It has allowed people to imagine they are inside the International Space Station, looking down at our fragile oasis and have that unique orbital perspective of our blue planet. 

"Leaving is bittersweet. It's been an unbelievable ride. Can't wait to see what's next!". credit: Tom Marshburn/NASA

Personally, I have had people who have no or very little interest or knowledge about what is being done on the ISS, coming up to me asking did I see the photo Tom Marshburn took of airplane contrails over Cork the previous day. That's pretty cool for me. It shows no matter how much you know or care about the manned space programme, you can still be stunned and encapsulated by these beautiful images beamed down from the guys. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some time in the future they renamed Flight Engineer to "Social Media Specialist" as an additional role for the astronauts at the rate it's going!

On a serious note, I think we all need to remember what an amazing achievement Expedition 35 really was scientifically. It's not like the guys have just been taking pictures since the moment they got up there. The departing crew set a record for the amount of experiments studied and completed in the entire 13 year history of the ISS-


 "On a science side.. we set a record for utilisation, for the amount of time that was spent and the amount of research done during our tenure here aboard Expedition 35" said Hadfield as he handed over command of the International Space Station to Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov.

However, the hard work didn't not stop there. With a little under 4 days until Hadfield, Marshburn and fellow crew member Roman Romanenko were to return to Earth, an ammonia leak was spotted in the station's P6 Truss, prompting an emergency spacewalk. With just 48 hours notice, the spacewalk by Marshburn and Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy could not have gone any better, with initial reports indicating the leak had been fixed and there was no more leaking.


"For me it all really came together in the last 3 days... For me this is just the personification of what the International Space Station is, and what the people mean to it".

Spaceflight finale: "To some this may look like a sunset. But it's a new dawn". credit: Chris Hadfield/CSA

-Chris Hadfield

As the crew prepared to close the hatch between the ISS and the Soyuz, in typical Chris Hadfield style, the commander reflected on the future as he posted his last photo from space.


"To some this may look like a sunset. But it's a new dawn"
-Chris Hadfield

Never before have us Earthlings been able to see and hear what it must be like to live aboard the International Space Station for nearly six months. We have been able to hear what it sounds like to run on the space station treadmill, float around from module to module inside this orbiting vessel, and what it sounds like when a Soyuz spacecraft docks, bringing three new crewmates to the station. We have never seen the crew answer questions from people all over the world quite like this, and I think they should be commended for this.

Keeping people up to date and sharing magnificent views is what makes people interested in space travel at the end of the day, and gives them that humble reminder with every photo that we all share this beautiful planet, and that we need to take care of it.

Expedition 35 Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan After 5 Months in Space

At 3:31 a.m. GMT the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft landed safely in Kazakhstan, bringing Expedition 34/35 crew members Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko home after spending 146 days in space.

After arriving at the International Space Station on December 21 2012, the trio joined the Expedition 34 crew and ended up setting a record for the amount of science conducted on the orbiting laboratory since astronauts and cosmonauts began living on the space station in 2000.

The hard work continued as part of Expedition 35, an increment which included two EVAs(one of which was unplanned to fix an ammonia leak)- one Russian and one American. After spending 145 days aboard the ISS, it was time for Soyuz Commander Romanenko, and Flight Engineers Marshburn and Hadfield to close the hatches and say goodbye to their home for the past five months.

Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn shortly after landing
credit: NASA

Hatches between the ISS and the departing Soyuz were closed at 8:50 p.m. GMT. The crew then turned their attention to switching the Soyuz onto autonomous power and a series of leak checks were performed soon after.

The Soyuz then undocked from the International Space Station at 12:08 a.m. GMT, as the station flew 255 miles above eastern Mongolia. This officially marked the beginning of Expedition 36.

A series of deorbit burns were then performed at 2:37 a.m. GMT in order to set the Soyuz on course for a landing south-east of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan. Landing itself occurred at 3:31 a.m. GMT in near perfect conditions.

The crew was then extracted one by one from the Soyuz capsule until all crew members sat on their individual recliner couches while being attended to by medical staff, before being carried away to the medical tent which had been set up for the landing process.


The station will remain a three man crew until the launch of the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, which is scheduled for May 28.