ESA astronaut André Kuipers, together with his Russian Commander Oleg Kononenko and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan on 1 July 2012, at 10:14 CEST (08:14 UT), in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft.
During his six-month PromISSe mission on the International Space Station, André conducted over 50 scientific experiments in the world’s only permanent microgravity laboratory.
Credits: ESA–S. Corvaja, 2012
Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers were greeted in a traditional ceremony at the airport in Karaganda, Kazakhstan on 1 July 2012, hours after landing in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.
After the ceremony, the crew split up, with Kononenko returning to his training base in Star City, Russia, while Pettit and Kuipers boarded a NASA plane in Karaganda to return to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The trio completed 193 days in space and 191 days aboard the International Space Station following a launch in late December. The footage includes a short interview conducted André in Karaganda before beginning the trip back to Houston (starts at 7'51").
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.
The sequence of events below are as expected on 1 July for the return of the Soyuz TMA-03M with ESA astronaut André Kuipers, NASA's Don Pettit and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko. Departure starts with the undocking command at 06:50 CEST (04:50 UT) and ends with landing in Kazakhstan at 10:15 CEST (08:15 UT).
03:32 CEST (01:32 UT) - Hatch closure
06:44 CEST (04:44 UT) - Undocking command to open hooks and latches
06:47 CEST (04:47 UT) - Hooks opened / physical Separation of Soyuz TMA-03M from the Rassvet/MRM1 module at 0.12 m/s
Physical separation from Rassvet on this occasion (not Pirs) (Credit: NASA)
06:56 CEST (04:56 UT) - Separation burn from ISS (15 second burn of the Soyuz engines, 0.55 m/s; Soyuz distance from the ISS is ~15-20 metres)
09:19 CEST (07:19 UT) - Deorbit Burn (4 min 15 sec in duration, 115.2 m/sec; Soyuz distance from the ISS is ~12 km)
Deorbit burn (Credit: NASA)
09:48 CEST (07:48 UT) - Separation of modules (~23 mins after deorbit Burn; 140 km altitude; undocking command + ~2 hours, 57 mins.)
Separation of modules (Credit: NASA)
09:51 CEST (07:51 UT) - Entry interface (101.8 km altitude)
Reentry in Earth's atmosphere (Credit: NASA)
10:00 CEST (08:00 UT) - Command to open chutes (10.7 km altitude)
Two Pilot Parachutes are first deployed, the second of which extracts the Drogue
Chute. The Drogue Chute is then released, measuring 24 square meters, slowing the Soyuz down from a descent rate of 230 m/s to 80 m/s.
The main parachute is then released, covering an area of 1000 square metres; it slows the Soyuz to a descent rate of 7.2 m/s; its harnesses first allows the Soyuz to descend at an angle of 30 degrees to expel heat, then shifts the Soyuz to a straight vertical descent.
Main parachute deployed (Credit: NASA)
Appx. 2 seconds before landing - Soft Landing Engine Firing (6 engines fire to slow the Soyuz descent rate to 1.5 m/s just 0.8 meter above the ground)
Soft Landing Engine Firing (Credit: ESA)
10:15:02 CEST (08:15:02 UT/14:15:02 Kazakhstan time) - Landing (Descent take about 3 hours 24 mins) 217 km SE of Dzhezkazgan; 7 hours 1 minute before sunset at the landing site in Kazakhstan.
Landing, deploy antenna (Credit: NASA)
Crew departure to Houston. Landing +5.5 hours; duration of flight: 16.5 hours
André in Sokol suit (credit: ESA/NASA)
After entering the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft and closing the hatches at 03:40 CEST, the Soyuz is set to undock from the Station at 06:53 CEST on Sunday morning. A couple of hours later at 09:19 CEST, a 4 minute 25 second deorbit burn will start the Soyuz on it's journey towards Earth's atmosphere.
Soyuz TMA-03M (Credit: ESA/NASA)
The descent module rotates, placing the strongest parts of the heatshield towards the reentry direction, so that it can absorb most of the heat caused by friction. Reentry occurs at an altitude of 101.8 kilometres. The speed is reduced dramatically and the crew is pushed back into their seats by a force of 4–5 g. This is equivalent to four to five times their own body weight.
Oleg, Don and André in their Russian Sokol suits (Credit: NASA)
After landing, the crew will deploy a communication antenna, so that the rescue teams can pinpoint their precise location. The landing site is located 217 km SE of the Kazakh city of Dzhezkazgan. Once rescued André and Don will be taken directly back to Houston from Baikonur, for rehabilitation and post-flight body data collection. Oleg will return to Star City in Moscow.
Unlike the 2 days between launch and docking with the ISS, reentry and landing on the Steppes of Kazakhstan is a relatively quick procedure, taking no longer than three and a half hours from undocking to touchdown.
In preparation for their return to Earth with the Soyuz TMA-03M on 1 July, Oleg Kononenko, Don Pettit & André Kuipers recently donned their Russian Sokol launch and entry suits to perform the standard leak check in their spacecraft. Here they pose for a photograph in the Station's Destiny laboratory.
Oleg, Don and André in their Russian Sokol suits (Credit: NASA)
André in Sokol suit (credit: ESA/NASA)
The three International Space Station crewmembers, André Kuipers, Oleg Kononenko and Don Pettit, donned their Russian Sokol spacesuits yesterday afternoon and performed a so-called 'fit-check' of their personalised body-contoured seats inside their TMA-03M/29S spacecraft.
Dressed in their Sokol suits they sat in their tailormade shock-absorbing seats and used a ruler to measure the gap between the top of the head and the top edge of the seat. The Kazbek-U seats are designed to withstand g-loads during launch and orbital insertion as well as during reentry and brake-rocket-assisted landing.
Each seat has two positions: cocked (armed) and non-cocked. In the cocked position, they are raised to allow the shock absorbers to function during touchdown. The fit check is needed because their bodies will have gained in height during their long stay in zero-G, and they need to check that they will still be adequately protected by the seat liners for their touchdown in Kazakhstan. Their return to Earth is scheduled for 1 July.
Yesterday ESA astronaut André Kuipers and his Russian ISS Expedition 30 crewmate Oleg Kononenko rehearsed docking procedures for ATV-3 on board the International Space Station - André tweeted this photo of the two of them sat at the panel in the Russian Zvezda module from where they will monitor the approach and docking of ATV Edoardo Amaldi next week.
André and Oleg rehearse ATV docking procedures in the Zvezda module (Credit: ESA/NASA)
PromISSe mission logo
It's official... ESA astronaut André Kuipers will stay on ISS for a few weeks longer than originally planned. Following the delay to the launch of the next Soyuz spacecraft, the Station partners have agreed that Don Pettit, Oleg Kononenko and André will return to Earth on 1 July.
Read more on the ESA Portal:
André’s PromISSe mission extended on Space Station
Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov are currently preparing to start a six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
Wearing the Russian Orlan spacesuits, Oleg and Anton are scheduled to exit the Pirs airlock at 15:15 CET (14:15 GMT). Their tasks are to attach five debris shields on the exterior of the Zvezda service module and to relocate one of two Strela telescoping cranes from the Pirs module to the Poisk module.
Expedition 17 crewmembers with Orlan spacesuit (left) and US spacesuit (right)
The Russian ISS crewmembers have been preparing for today's spacewalk for a number of days, even performing a dry run inside the ISS on Tuesday.
Today's spacewalk is the 162nd in support of ISS assembly and maintainence and is the only spacewalk scheduled during Expedition 30. The last ISS spacewalk took place on 3 August 2011. The spacewalk is scheduled to end at 21:15 CET (20:15 GMT) when the cosmonauts reenter the ISS.
Follow the Russian spacewalk on NASA TV from 14:45 CET (13:45 GMT): http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
