WASHINGTON, April 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut
Kate Rubins, along with Roscosmos
cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and
Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, returned to
Earth on Saturday, following six months living and working aboard
the International Space Station.
The crew departed the station in their Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft at
9:34 p.m. EDT Friday and landed
safely under parachutes at 12:55 a.m.
(10:55 a.m. Kazakhstan time) Saturday southeast of the
town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
It was the second spaceflight for Rubins and Ryzhikov and the first
for Kud-Sverchkov.
Rubins will return to her home in Houston, and Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will
return to their homes and training base in Star City, Russia.
Rubins will discuss her 185-day mission in a news conference at
3:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 21. The
news conference from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will air live on NASA Television, the
NASA app, and the agency's website.
Media wishing to participate by telephone must call Johnson's
newsroom at 281-483-5111 to RSVP no later than 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 20. Those following the briefing
on social media may ask questions using #AskNASA.
During their mission, Rubins and her crewmates welcomed NASA's
SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts aboard the first long-duration commercial
crew spaceflight. Rubins completed two spacewalks alongside NASA
astronaut Victor Glover and Japanese
Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, bringing her career total to
four spacewalks. She returns to Earth with a total of 300 days
across her two flights, the fourth most days in space by a U.S.
female astronaut.
Rubins spent hundreds of hours working on new space station
experiments, building on investigations she conducted during her
first mission, including heart research and multiple microbiology
studies. She advanced her work in DNA sequencing, which could
allow astronauts to diagnose an illness in space or identify
microbes growing at the space station. Rubins collected hundreds of
microbial samples at different locations within the space station
for the 3DMM study to construct a 3D map of bacteria and
bacterial products throughout the station. By advancing
understanding of the orbiting laboratory's microbiome, this work
helps identify potential risks and supports developing
countermeasures to mitigate those risks.
Rubins also worked on the Cardinal Heart experiment, which
studies how changes in gravity affect cardiovascular cells at the
cellular and tissue levels. Results could provide new understanding
of heart problems on Earth, help identify new treatments, and
support development of screening measures to predict cardiovascular
risk prior to spaceflight.
Rubins, Ryzhikov, and Kud-Sverchkov's mission began Oct. 14, 2020, when their spacecraft launched
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their spacecraft docked to the
Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module after a two-orbit,
three-hour flight.
On March 19, the trio donned their
spacesuits and boarded the Soyuz MS-17 for a port relocation
maneuver, moving the spacecraft from the Rassvet module to the
space-facing port of the Poisk module. The relocation allowed the
Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft and its crew to dock to the Rassvet module
upon their arrival on April 9.
When Rubins, Ryzhikov, and Kud-Sverchkov departed the station,
Expedition 65 officially began with NASA astronaut Shannon Walker serving as station commander,
marking the first time that a Houston native has done so. Walker will lead
the crew until the departure of SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience on
Wednesday, April 28, when command of
the station will be handed over to JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
On Thursday, April 22, the
Expedition 65 crew will grow to 11 with the launch of NASA's SpaceX
Crew-2, composed of NASA astronauts Shane
Kimbrough and Megan McArthur,
ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and JAXA's
Hoshide. Crew-2 will be the second long-duration mission to fly as
part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, continuing to provide the
capability of regularly launching humans from American soil.
In November 2020, the
International Space Station surpassed a 20-year milestone of
continuous human presence, providing opportunities for unique
technological demonstrations and research that help prepare for
long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars while also improving
life on Earth. To date, 243 people from 19 countries have visited
the orbiting laboratory that has hosted nearly 3,000 research
investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.
Learn more about space station activities by following
@space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as
the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts and the space
station blog.
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SOURCE NASA