Replay of today's landing of the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 10:14 CEST (08:14 UT) returning Expedition 30/31 crewmembers Oleg Kononenko, André Kuipers and Don Pettit to Earth after 193 days in space.
Talking to the Neemo crew (Credit: ESA/NASA)
André writes: "The six of us on the Space Station live quite isolated from the world. But we are not the only people in such a situation. Before my mission started I asked if I could be in contact with two other missions. One on the bottom of the sea and one on the South Pole. I had very special conversations with people that are in similar situations or even more isolated."
Read more in André's blog: 'Cut off underwater and near the South Pole'
Expedition 31 Flight Engineers Joe Acaba and Don Pettit of NASA and ESA's André Kuipers discuss scientific research on the International Space Station and other facets of life and work in space during in-flight interviews 19 June with Fox Business News and the American Geophysical Union.
ESA astronaut André Kuipers recently discussed the highlights of his six-month PromISSe mission on the International Space Station during an in-flight interview with Euronews. André, who launched to the station in December, will return to Earth 1 July in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a landing in Kazakhstan along with crewmates Don Pettit and Oleg Kononenko.
Broken connector of the Pulmonary Functioning System needed for the CARD experiment
The protocol consists of five testing sessions, scheduled over a 24-hour time period. Cardiac output is measured on the ISS using the ‘Pulmonary Function System’. Over the 24-hour period, blood pressure is monitored hourly by an automatic portable device worn on the upper arm, and all urine voids are collected. A blood draw is conducted towards the end of the measurement period to assess hormonal changes.
When André was in the middle of his first cardiac output measurement with the Pulmonary Function System, the hose connector for the breathing gas broke – a big problem, because the gas supply is crucial for the measurements.
The ground teams at DAMEC User Support and Operations Centre (USOC) in Denmark and in Mission Control reported that they had good data for the first of the five measurements, but they might not get repairs completed on orbit in time for the second of the five measurements some four hours later. Hence the teams had to make the difficult decision to abort all the CARD measurements for that day. That way they could make sure that consumables – such as mouth pieces, electrodes and wipes - could be saved for a possible repetition later, providing they could find a way to carry out repairs on-orbit…..
Pulmonary Functioning System set-up for the CARD experiment
Some days later, the ground teams were ready and had a video prepared to show André how to do this repair. The video message was sent up to him and André succeeded in repairing the connector. Execution of the science protocol was re-planned for mid of April, where this time all five measurements sessions with the Pulmonary Function System were successfully completed by André.
In the meantime, the CARD science team received the in-flight data and collected the frozen urine and blood samples, which were returned to ground with the Soyuz vehicle at the end of April. The science team confirmed the in-flight data and samples look good. Since André was the very last subject for this experiment, this thrilling story now successfully concludes all in-flight measurements and operations for the eight CARD experiment subjects. All’s well that ends well, right?
André Kuipers on board ISS
Today's tune? Debussy – Suite Bergamesque No.3 (Clair de lune). And the final song on André's list for 1 July when he is set to return to Earth: Harry Sacksioni with 'Geland' (translated: 'Landed').
Check out the 'Song a day' playlist on André's logboek - scroll down for the June/July entries.
More about music in space in the ESA Portal article: ‘I’ll go where your music takes me’
Some three and a half hours after undocking from the International Space Station, the Soyuz TMA-22 landed safely in the Kazakh Steppe at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UT). On board were Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin who returned to Earth after just over five months in space.
Watch the replay from NASA TV:
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View of the ISS from Soyuz TMA-22 following undocking (credit: NASA TV)
The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station marking the end of Expedition 30 and the start of Expedition 31.
The Soyuz spacecraft separated from the ISS at 10:18 CEST this morning, on board are Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin who have started their journey back to Earth. Oleg Kononenko is now officially commander of the ISS.
The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft is scheduled to land in the Kazakh Steppe at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UT).
Watch the replay:
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ISS crewmembers Dan Burbank, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin are preparing to return to Earth. They entered their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft earlier this morning. The hatches to the International Space Station were closed at 7:12 CEST and they will undock from the ISS at 10:18 CEST (08:18 UT), landing in the Kazakh Steppe some three and a half hours later.
The undocking of the Soyuz marks the official start of Expedition 31 for the crew remaining on the Station: Station Commander Oleg Kononenko and Flight Engineers Don Pettit and André Kuipers. In mid-May they will be joined by Flight Engineers Gennady Padalka, Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin who will launch and arrive in the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft.
Follow the undocking live on NASA TV from 10:00 CEST (08:00 UT): http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
André performs the FOAM experiment (credit: ESA/NASA)
This once-in-a-lifetime experience brought together the four sites by videoconference: science centre Nemo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the Leicester National Space Center, United Kingdom, Parque de las Ciencias in Granada, Spain, and the Technik Museum in Speyer, Germany.
Before getting in contact with space, the centres demonstrated scientific experiments to each other. They created fire explosions and super thick foams to show students the footprints of gravity and physics in our everyday life.
The astronaut encouraged the children to satisfy their bubbling curiosity and went on to answer their questions. Solar storms, blood circulation and the water behaviour in weightlessness were among the topics tackled.
Read more about the event on the ESA Portal: Shake it up!
Watch a replay of the inflight call:
This PromISSe mission education activity is part of the Spaceship Earth programme, run as Ruimteschip Aarde in the Netherlands.
