NASA's Expedition 49: Spacemen returns home after 115 days in space

• comments
• 
• 

At around 11:58 p.m. EDT of October 29, 2016, three space crews of the Expedition 49 landed back to Earth from the International Space Station. NASA astronaut's Kate Rubins, Russian Federal Space Agency's Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency were safe after they have landed in the remote town of Dzhezkazgan inside Soyuz spacecraft.

The three spacemen where then airlifted by a helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan for recovery and where they will be transferred again to their bases with Iavnishin to Star City, Russia and Rubins and Onishi to Houston.

The mission was launched last July with the upgraded Soyuz MS-01 that was commanded and controlled by Ivanishin. It aimed to conduct experiments in biology, biotechnology, earth sciences and physical sciences as well as to bring tons of supplies for the International Space Station.

Also, apart from the experiments inside the spacelab, spacewalks where likewise done by Rubins together with NASA astronaut Jeff Williams from Expedition 47/48. The purpose is to install the international docking adapter with a host of sensors and systems to provide a port for future docking of commercial spacecrafts that will bring astronauts to the space station. They also retracted the spare thermal radiator and installed a high-definition camera for a better view of the port and to the outside of the station.

The trip back to Earth on board Soyuz spacecraft covers approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes that concludes the 115 days in space of the three crews of the Expedition 49.

Further, Expedition 50 crews commanded by Shane Kimbrough of NASA and crew Syrgey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos will take charge to operate the station for the next three weeks until the arrival of the three new members Peggy Whitson of NASA, Thomas Pesquet of European Space Agency and Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos on November 17.