Kononenko, with two previous station visits to his credit, has now logged more than 533 days in space while Lindgren and Yui have each logged 141 days.
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NASA has been footing the bill for transportation costs to allow private industry to send experiments and the astronauts who conduct them to and from the space station. Such investigations enable research breakthroughs and drive technology innovations that provide benefits on Earth, and will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration missions into deep space. From there, Kononenko will depart for Star City, located near Moscow, while Lindgren and Yui board a NASA jet for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where their families are awaiting their return. The station has taken a power hit, and spacewalking repairs may be needed.
NASA’s Scott Kelly, Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov will hold down the fort onboard the Space Station until a new crew of three launches to the outpost on December 15.
The crew members also welcomed three cargo spacecraft during their mission. Around 4:49AM ET, the Soyuz will undock from the ISS.
European Space Agency astronaut Major Peake will make history when he becomes the first Briton to serve a mission on the International Space Station next Tuesday.
Peake did admit that he was expecting to feel a little under-par in space – nausea caused by the effects of weightlessness is experienced by almost all astronauts during their time in orbit.
Always the first with your local news. The second spacewalk resulted in the successful reconfiguration of a space station ammonia cooling system.
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British astronaut Tim Peake is all set to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) along with NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and cosmonaut commander Yuri Malenchenko on December 15 and as ESA puts it, there’s no stopping them!
