Space Station Trio Lands Safely In Kazakhstan

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov

HOUSTON -- Three members of the Expedition 30 crew undocked from the International Space Station and safely returned to Earth on Friday, wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month mission in space.

Commander Dan Burbank of NASA and Russian Flight Engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov landed their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 6:45 a.m. CDT after undocking from the space station's Poisk module at 3:18 a.m. The trio, which arrived at the station on Nov. 16, 2011, spent a total of 165 days in space, 163 of them conducting research on the station.

Before leaving the station, Burbank handed over command of Expedition 31 to the Russian Federal Space Agency's Oleg Kononenko, who remains aboard the station with NASA astronaut Don Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers. They will be joined by NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin. Acaba, Padalka and Revin are scheduled to launch May 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and dock with the station on May 16.

To follow Twitter updates from NASA's Expedition 30 and 31 astronauts, visit http://twitter.com/AstroCoastie , https://twitter.com/astro_Pettit , and https://twitter.com/AstroAcaba.

For more information about Expedition 31 and the space station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Coverage Set For Next Soyuz Space Station Crew Rotation

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington                                        

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

 

Kelly Humphries

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov

HOUSTON -- Over the next several weeks, NASA Television will provide coverage of activities surrounding the upcoming International Space Station crew rotation. Coverage will include departure of three crew members now living aboard the space station. It also will include pre-launch activities, launch and arrival of three new residents.

Beginning April 23, NASA TV video files will document Expedition 31 crew training activities with Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba of NASA and Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Sergei Revin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. NASA TV also will broadcast the crew's news conference and ceremonial visit to Red Square in Moscow on April 25.

NASA TV will broadcast the change of command ceremony aboard the station at 2 p.m. CDT on April 25. Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank of NASA will hand over command to Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos.

On April 27, Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin will depart the station and Expedition 31 will begin aboard the complex. The departing trio will return to Earth aboard their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, completing a five-and-a-half-month mission.

Don Pettit of NASA, Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency and Kononenko, who have been on the station since late December 2011, will remain aboard until July 1.

On May 14, Acaba, Padalka and Revin will launch in the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will arrive at the station on May 16 to join Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers and return the crew size to six.

NASA TV's scheduled coverage includes (all times Central):

Monday, April 23

11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew qualification training simulation runs in Star City, Russia.

Tuesday, April 24

11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew qualification training simulation runs in Star City.

Wednesday, April 25

1 p.m - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew news conference in Star City and visit to Red Square in Moscow.

2 p.m. - Live Expedition 30/31 change of command ceremony.

Thursday, April 26

11:45 p.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-22 crew farewell and hatch-closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled at 12 a.m. on April 27).

Friday, April 27

3 a.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-22 undocking coverage (undocking scheduled at 3:18 a.m.)

5:30 a.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-22 deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled at 5:49 a.m., landing scheduled at 6:45 a.m.).

8 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-22 landing and post-landing activities.

6 p.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-22 landing and post-landing activities, including an interview with Burbank and the return of Shkaplerov and Ivanishin to Chkalovsky Airfield near Star City.

Wednesday, May 2

11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew departure activities for Baikonur, Kazakhstan from Star City.

Thursday, May 10

11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew activities in Baikonur.

Friday, May 11

11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M crew activities in Baikonur.

Sunday, May 13

12 p.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M rocket mating and rollout to the launch pad in Baikonur.

Monday, May 14

11 a.m. - Video file of the Soyuz TMA-04M final pre-launch crew news conference and Russian State Commission meeting in Baikonur.

9 p.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-04M launch coverage (launch scheduled at 10:01 p.m.), including pre-launch activities and launch replays.

Tuesday, May 15

12 a.m. - Video file of Soyuz TMA-04M pre-launch and launch video b-roll and post-launch interviews.

Wednesday, May 16

11:00 p.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-04M docking coverage (docking scheduled at 11:38 p.m.), followed by the post-docking news conference from Mission Control in Korolev, Russia.

Thursday, May 17

2:00 a.m. - Live Soyuz TMA-04M hatch opening and welcoming ceremony (ceremony scheduled at 2:35 a.m.)

4 a.m. - Video file of Soyuz TMA-04M docking, hatch opening and welcoming ceremony

For NASA TV downlink, schedule updates and streaming video information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Expedition 30 Cosmonauts Perform Spacewalk

This image of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov, both Expedition 30 flight engineers, was taken during a spacewalk on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. During the six-hour, 15-minute spacewalk, Kononenko and Shkaplerov moved the Strela-1 crane from the Pirs Docking Compartment in preparation for replacing it in 2012 with a new laboratory and docking module. The duo used another boom, the Strela-2, to move the hand-operated crane to the Poisk module for future assembly and maintenance work. Both telescoping booms extend like fishing rods and are used to move massive components outside the station. On the exterior of the Poisk Mini-Research Module 2, they also installed the Vinoslivost Materials Sample Experiment, which will investigate the influence of space on the mechanical properties of the materials. The spacewalkers also collected a test sample from underneath the insulation on the Zvezda Service Module to search for any signs of living organisms. Both spacewalkers wore Russian Orlan spacesuits bearing blue stripes and equipped with NASA helmet cameras.

Image Credit: NASA

Astronaut, Food Scientist To Discuss Thanksgiving In Space

Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington

Jay Bolden

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON – Please pass the irradiated smoked turkey, thermostable yams and freeze-dried green beans. The International Space Station is stocked and ready for an out-of-this-world Thanksgiving feast.

The three station crew members, one American and two Russians, will enjoy a holiday dinner floating 220 miles above Earth. In addition to the traditional holiday favorites, albeit with a space-food flair, their menu will include NASA's own cornbread dressing, as well as home style potatoes and cranberries. And, along with the best view from any Thanksgiving table, cherry-blueberry cobbler is available for dessert.

Vickie Kloeris, NASA food scientist and manager of the space station food system, and astronaut Clay Anderson are available for live satellite interviews on Wednesday, Nov. 23, from 6-7:30 a.m. CST to discuss the station's Thanksgiving menu. A veteran of two space flights, Anderson spent 152 days living aboard the station in 2007 and returned to the outpost in 2010 as a member of space shuttle mission STS-131. Related b-roll will precede the interviews at 5:30 a.m.

To arrange an interview, news media representatives must contact the Johnson Space Center newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 3 p.m. on Nov. 22.

Participating media must tune into NASA Television's Live Interview Media Outlet channel. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite SES 2, transponder 9C, located at 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 MHz based on a standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity. FEC is 3/4, data rate is 6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0.

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin arrived at the station Tuesday and will spend this holiday season aboard the orbiting laboratory. They are scheduled to live and work aboard the station until March, conducting dozens of experiments and preparing for the arrival of new commercial resupply spacecraft.

Burbank recently described the station crew's plans for celebrating Thanksgiving. For footage of his description, which includes displays of food that will make up their holiday feast, visit http://go.nasa.gov/tk7dHj.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For more information about the space station and its crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Next Space Station Crew Available For Media Interviews

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- The next crew to launch to the International Space Station will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 27 at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website. Reporters may ask questions from participating NASA centers or by phone.

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin are set to launch aboard a Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft on Sept. 22. The three Expedition 29 crew members will participate in round-robin interviews. To reserve an interview opportunity, U.S. media representatives must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 5 p.m. Monday, July 25.

To participate in the news conference from a NASA center, U.S. journalists must call the center's public affairs office by 5 p.m. local time on Tuesday, July 26. Reporters participating in the briefing by phone must be credentialed by a NASA center and call the Johnson newsroom by 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27.

Burbank also will be available for live satellite interviews between 3:10 and 4:30 p.m. on July 27. NASA TV will air b-roll footage of Expedition 29 mission preparations beginning at 2:30 p.m. that day. To participate in Burbank's satellite interviews, reporters must contact Stephanie Stoll at 281-483-9071 or stephanie.r.stoll@nasa.gov by 3 p.m. on July 26.

Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin are three of six crew members who will comprise Expeditions 29 and 30. Aboard the station, they will join Expedition 29 NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, who will stay aboard the station until November.

Burbank's live satellite interviews will air on NASA's Live Interview Media Outlet channel. The channel is a digital satellite C-band downlink by uplink provider Americom. It is on satellite AMC 3, transponder 9C, located 87 degrees west, downlink frequency 3865.5 MHz based on a standard C-band, horizontal downlink polarity. FEC is ¾, data rate is 6.0 Mbps, symbol rate is 4.3404 Msps, transmission DVB-S, 4:2:0.

For astronaut and cosmonaut biographical information visit http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/bios.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

For more information about the international Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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