On the eve of his seventieth birthday, Don Pettit, NASA’s oldest active-duty astronaut, and two cosmonaut crewmates undocked from the Worldwide House Station Saturday and equipped for a fiery in a single day plunge again to Earth to shut out a 220-day expedition.
Pettit, Soyuz MS-26/72S commander Alexey Ovchinin and flight engineer Ivan Vagner undocked from the Russian Rassvet docking port at 5:57 p.m. Jap Time, establishing a parachute-assisted touchdown on the steppe of Kazakhstan close to the city of Dzhezkazgan at 9:20 p.m. native time, or 6:20 a.m. Jap Time Sunday, Pettit’s birthday.
NASA
Russian restoration crews and NASA personnel have been deployed close by to assist the returning crew out of the Soyuz descent module with preliminary medical checks and satellite tv for pc cellphone calls to household and associates as they start their readjustment to gravity after seven months in weightlessness.
Assuming an on-time touchdown, mission length will stand at 220 days and almost 9 hours, spanning 3,520 orbits and 93.3 million miles since launch last Sept. 11 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
At landing, Ovchinin could have logged 595 days in area over 4 flights, adopted carefully by Pettit, whose complete will stand at 590 days over 4 flights of his personal. Vagner’s complete might be 416 days aloft throughout two area station visits.
The world document for many cumulative time in area is held by cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who spent almost 1,111 days in orbit over 5 missions. The U.S. document is held by astronaut Peggy Whitson. She spent 675 days in area over 4 flights.
NASA 
As for Pettit’s age, John Glenn, the primary American in orbit, was 77 when he flew aboard the area shuttle in 1998 as a NASA spaceflight participant. He holds the document because the oldest individual to fly in orbit.
From Kazakhstan, Ovchinin and Vagner will head again to Star Metropolis close to Moscow whereas Pettit might be flown to the Johnson House Heart in Houston for extra detailed exams and start his bodily rehabilitation.
The trio’s return to Earth marked the ultimate chapter in an prolonged crew rotation that started with launch of SpaceX Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on March 14.
Crew 10’s arrival on the station cleared the best way for Crew 9 commander Nick Hague, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams to return to Earth four days later.
The Russians then launched replacements for Pettit’s crew — Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky and NASA’s Jonny Kim — on April 8, clearing the best way for Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit to return to Earth Saturday.
NASA 
In a quick ceremony Friday, Ovchinin turned command of the station over to Onishi.
“It is a terrific honor for me to just accept the command of the ISS,” Onishi mentioned. “I really feel so particular that I’m taking up the command from you as a result of it has been virtually 9 years since we met right here in 2016 throughout Expedition 48. At the moment, each of us have been rookies and right here we’re two veterans who’re ISS commanders.”
“Human area flight is just not straightforward. Solely steady dedication from technology to technology made it potential for human beings to get right here. Now immediately, we have now 4 rookies (on board). I am positive sooner or later they may come again and grow to be commanders … that is how we’ll proceed to develop human area flight,” Onishi mentioned.
The ISS has been constantly staffed by rotating crews since Nov. 2, 2000. Scheduled for retirement in 5 years, the lab is dealing with issues on a number of fronts, starting from air leaks within the Russian section to unsure funding, spare components shortages and resupply delays.
“Spaceflight is troublesome and really dangerous,” Wealthy Williams, a member of NASA’s impartial Aerospace Security Advisory Panel, informed the group in a public assembly Thursday. “The ISS has entered the riskiest interval of its existence.”
“The ISS administration, crew and help personnel at all times make spaceflight look straightforward. Spaceflight is something however straightforward, and the rising dangers attending the ISS program are making it more durable,” Williams mentioned.
The air leaks within the Zvezda module’s aft docking compartment are presumably the outcomes of metallic fatigue and repeated strain cycles as visiting Soyuz crew ships and Progress cargo freighters come and go.
NASA 
“Main danger mitigation actions at this level embody software and patching supplies to identified cracks and limiting … pressurization cycles to attempt to restrict stress and fatigue,” Williams mentioned. “The ISS program is monitoring this carefully, and the panel considers this considered one of our highest issues.”
NASA has employed SpaceX to construct a U.S. deorbit car, or USDV, to drive the million-pound area station again into the ambiance in 2030 to make sure it breaks up over the southern Pacific Ocean, removed from delivery lanes and populated areas. The USDV is anticipated to reach on the lab in 2029.
“Delivering and using this USDV functionality is crucial to making sure that the deorbit particles danger meets the established authorities public security requirements,” Williams mentioned. “If there’s a deorbit of the ISS earlier than the USDV is delivered, the chance to the general public from ISS breakup particles will enhance by orders of magnitude.”
He mentioned NASA and Russian area officers are working “to handle the challenges related to attaining a protected deorbit functionality, each for end-of-life in addition to a risk-managed deorbit for contingencies.”
The key drawback dealing with the ISS is what Williams known as “a big ISS finances shortfall.” NASA’s fiscal 2024 finances included almost $1 billion for station operations and upkeep with one other $1.6 billion earmarked for crew launches and resupply missions.
“It’s crucial to keep up ample finances and sources till the car has safely re-entered, not solely to guarantee security of day-to-day operations in a high-risk setting, but additionally to make sure managed, protected deorbit inside particles footprint necessities for the sake of public security,” Williams mentioned.
In abstract, he mentioned, “the panel appreciates the demonstrated operational excellence of the ISS program, however stays deeply involved in regards to the rising and cascading dangers attending this system over the subsequent a number of years.”
