ISS Update - Sending Astonauts Home and Breaking Records

Three astronauts are coming back to Earth Monday, returning from a six month stay on the International Space Station. Peggy Whitson, all around awesome astronaut, will stay on the ISS for an extended mission. Later this month she will break the record for the most days spent in space by a US astronaut! 

Expedition 50 crew members (from left) Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko will depart the station Monday April 10 ending their stay in space. Image: NASA

Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos are returning after spending about 6 months on the station - orbiting the Earth 220 miles up at about 17,500 miles per hour. They are scheduled to land at 6:21 AM CDT in Kazakhstan. You can watch live coverage on NASA TV here. Riding home in the Soyuz is always a cramped and uncomfortable experience. The astronauts are packed into the small vessel and they land on the hard ground - even though the fall is slowed by parachutes they have to use chairs that are custom molded to their bodies because the impact is so forceful. 

Expedition 45 crew members Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency packed in to the Soyuz before returning home.

Credits: NASA

Expedition 42 Soyuz landing. Image: NASA

When they get back home, it is a long process to acclimate to Earth gravity. In his book, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Chris Hadfield describes feeling like an old man when he came home. His joints and feet especially hurt, and his depth perception and balance were off for quite a while. Most astronauts take several months to fully recover from spending 6 months in a microgravity environment. 

Peggy Whitson on a spacewalk in 2008. Image: NASA

After Shane leaves, Peggy Whitson will become Commander of the crew aboard the station. Peggy has been in space this time around since November, and her stay on board the station has been extended until September - a 10 month stay!  Before this stint on the ISS, Peggy had already logged 377 days in space on previous missions. On April 24 she will break NASA astronaut Jeff Williams' record for cumulative days in space (534 days) by an American, and by the time she goes home, she will have spent over 650 days in space in her lifetime! 

Peggy in the cupola of the ISS. Image NASA

Peggy is breaking all sorts of records. She became the first female commander of the Space Station back in 2007, and she holds the record for the most spacewalks by a female astronaut with 8. She also has had a very long career as an active astronaut. She is 56 years old, so adds another record to her belt by being the oldest female astronaut to fly in space. Peggy's career on Earth is just as impressive as her space credentials. She has served in many various jobs and positions, including commander of the underwater Aquarius laboratory, and Chief of the Astronaut Office from 2009 to 2012. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook. 

Peggy on the ISS before a spacewalk. Image: NASA

Peggy is staying in space longer than expected because Russia decided to cut back on their manned space program. Usually, Russia sends 3 cosmonauts, the US sends 2, and ESA/Canada/Japan get the final slot of the 6 person crew. In 2017, Russia will only send 2 cosmonauts, and NASA will send 3. Peggy is filling in the gap that would have been left when Russia only launches one cosmonaut into space for Expedition 51. Fyodor Yurchikhin from Russia and Jack Fischer from the US will launch to the ISS in April, to join Peggy, Oleg Novitskiy of Russia, and Thomas Pesquet of France on the ISS. 

You can follow the astronauts on the ISS on their social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It is a great way to see pictures of the Earth from space, and to keep up with the science that is happening in space. You can also follow NASA's blog, and often see the ISS passing overhead!  Remember, you can always learn what's up in the night sky in the Dome Planetarium at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, where we teach about space and science everyday. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates! 

 

Beer, Pizza, and Space, what more could you want?