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‘Favory’ crew on the way home

In accordance with the flight program of the International Space Station, the transfer hatches between the Soyuz MS-17 crewed spacecraft and the Poisk Mini Research Module were closed on April 16, 2021 at 22:25:50 UTC. A few hours later, at 01:34:04 UTC, the spacecraft nominally undocked from the Russian segment of the ISS backing to autonomous flight mode and went to Earth carrying the ‘Favory’ crew: Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins.

According to TsNIIMash Mission Control Center preliminary data (part of Roscosmos), at 04:01:33 UTC the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft propulsion system will be switched on for braking, half an hour later the habitable and instrumentation compartments will separate from the descent vehicle and burn up in the dense layers of the atmosphere. At 04:55:52 UTC, the descent vehicle is expected to land 147 km southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan (Kazakhstan). Live broadcast from the landing site will be available on the Roscosmos website starting at 04:20 UTC.

The Soyuz MS-17 crewed vehicle has been part of the ISS since October 14, 2021. For the first time in history, a crewed spacecraft docked to the ISS after two orbits around the Earth. In addition, a new record was set for flights to the International Space Station - the total time from launch to docking of the Soyuz MS-17 was only 3 hours and 3 minutes. The 64th long-term expedition to the International Space Station crew performed about fifty experiments from various fields of science according to the Russian scientific program (medicine, space biology, biotechnology, physicochemical processes, etc.), as well as several spacewalks according to Russian and American programs. The crew also redocked the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft. In addition, the cosmonauts and astronauts performed ISS maintenance and re-equipment with equipment delivered by Russian and foreign cargo ships.

The crew of the 65th long-term expedition, consisting of Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, Mark Vande Hei and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi continues to work in low-earth orbit. On April 22, 2021, a Falcon-9 carrier rocket is to be launched from Cape Canaveral with the crew of the Crew Dragon USCV-2 consisting of Shane Kimbrow, Megan MacArthur, Akihiko Hoshide and Tom Peske.