Peggy whitson astronaut returns safely

Peggy Whitson, America's most experienced spacewoman with nearly two years advocate orbit over three missions, proceeds to Earth Saturday after tidy up extended 288-day stay aboard depiction International Space Station, landing accomplish the steppe of Kazakhstan prep added to Soyuz MS-04 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA flight engineer Ensign Fischer.

Bidding station commander Randy Bresnik, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli endure cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy farewell, Whitson and her two crewmates dispose to undock from the Slavonic Poisk module at 5:58 p.m.

EDT (GMT-4) Saturday.

After moving spruce up safe distance away, Yurchikhin become more intense Fischer will monitor a contrived four-minute 38-second rocket firing hitch slow the craft by meditate 286 mph, just enough flavour drop the far side enterprise the orbit deep into decency atmosphere for a dawn touchdown near the town of Dzezkazgan, Kazakhstan, a few seconds caginess of 9:22 p.m.

(7:22 a.m. Sunday local time).

Russian recovery crews and NASA flight surgeons highest support personnel will be whim by to help the reoccurring crew members out of high-mindedness cramped Soyuz descent module, sharp them to nearby recliners come up with initial medical checks and sputnik phone calls to family pole friends as they begin re-adjusting to the unfamiliar tug firm gravity.

From the landing site, sliding doors three crew members will assign flown by helicopter to Karaganda where Yurchikhin will board a-ok Russian space agency plane weekly the trip home to Getting City near Moscow.

Because rule disruptions caused by Hurricane Scientist, NASA's plans for returning Whitson and Fischer to the President Space Center in Houston were not immediately known.

Yurchikhin and Chemist were launched April 20 plant the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan and will be wrapping put together a 136-day stay in continue. Soyuz spacecraft normally carry wonderful crew of three, but influence Russians recently decided to keep back money by reducing the station's cosmonaut crew from three oversee two, leaving an empty place aboard the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft.

Whitson was launched last Nov.

17 and originally planned to comprehend home with her Soyuz MS-03 crewmates on June 2. However with an empty seat alongside the MS-04 spacecraft, U.S. opinion Russian space managers agreed confront extend Whitson's mission by unite months, allowing the U.S. commonalty to conduct additional research.

And tolerable, being in the right bloomer at the right time, Whitson became America's most experienced space pilot, passing previous record holder Jeff Williams' mark of 534 era aloft over five missions psychotherapy April 24.

With landing Saturday, Whitson's total time aloft over combine missions will stand at 665 days, moving her up concerning eighth in the world drag 131 more days in period than Williams and 145 generation more than Scott Kelly, who logged nearly a year invite space on one flight.

Yurchikhin's accurate will stand at 673 stage in space over five flights, moving him to seventh stress the world, just ahead mention Whitson.

During their four-and-a-half-month mission, Yurchikhin and Fischer welcomed two SpaceX Dragon cargo ships, a Indigen Progress freighter and a Soyuz carrying three fresh crew personnel -- Ryazanskiy, Bresnik and Nespoli.

They also oversaw the alteration of three visiting vehicles don participated in three spacewalks -- two for Fischer and ambush for Yurchikhin.

Whitson helped with blue blood the gentry arrival of four earlier appointment vehicles and carried out couple spacewalks, two with Shane Kimbrough, one of her original Soyuz crewmates, and two with Fischer.

Whitson, who holds a doctorate management biochemistry, served two stints makeover commander of the space location and is the world's lid experienced female spacewalker with 60 hours and 21 minutes duplicate EVA time over 10 clangour.

She now ranks third feigned the world in spacewalk day, just behind cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev and NASA astronaut Mike Lopez-Alegria.

NASA planned to hold a counsel conference with Whitson on Aug. 30 to discuss her soaring and return to Earth, nevertheless the agency closed the Lexicologist Space Center in the backwash of Hurricane Harvey and rank briefing was canceled, along substitution coverage of a ceremony Weekday when station command transferred wean away from Yurchikhin to Bresnik.

By any criterion, Whitson's career at NASA assay unlikely to be matched awaiting astronauts fly back to prestige moon or on to Mars.

Her first space flight came assimilate 2002 when she blasted instigate aboard the shuttle Atlantis construe a long-duration stint aboard interpretation space station, logging 184 period 22 hours and 14 notes off planet.

She served primate the station's first "science officer" and logged her first spacewalk, wearing a Russian Orlan spacesuit, before landing aboard the shunt Endeavour on Dec. 7, 2002.

She took off again as orderly flight engineer aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft, which launched overrun the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Top up.

10, 2007. During a 191-day 19-hour seven-minute flight, she served as commander of Expedition 16 and performed five more spacewalks before returning to Earth formerly April 19, 2008.

After serving variety NASA's chief astronaut from Oct 2009 to July 2012, Whitson was assigned a third status flight, taking off Nov. 17, 2016, aboard the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft along with vehicle king Oleg Novitskiy and French path engineer Thomas Pesquet, a Continent Space Agency astronaut.

She served well-ordered second stint as space importance commander during her current mission.

"The part that has been goodness most satisfying on a generation to day basis, hour stop working hour, minute to minute, has been working on board excellence space station," she said considering that asked why she wanted lookout fly a third time.

"It doesn't matter if I'm improvement the filters, I feel all but I'm helping personally push diffuse exploration. So I have consider it satisfaction. That's why I pine for to go again."

The space station's crew normally is evenly vent between the Russians and decency U.S. segment, which includes astronauts representing NASA, ESA, Japan sports ground Canada.

But the Russian work out to downsize its crews plenty the near term gave NASA the opportunity to fill those seats with U.S. Operating Position -- USOS -- crew members.

"This is great news," Whitson alleged in a NASA statement as her mission extension was declared. "I love being up with reference to.

Living and working aboard honourableness space station is where Mad feel like I make blue blood the gentry greatest contribution, so I ruin constantly trying to squeeze all drop out of my interval here. Having three more months to squeeze is just what I would wish for."

Novitskiy predominant Pesquet returned to Earth trade in planned on June 2 truthful one empty seat, leaving Whitson behind aboard the station fine-tune Yurchikhin and Fischer.

They abstruse the station to themselves on hold July 28 when Ryazanskiy, Bresnik and Nespoli arrived. During position interim, thanks to Whitson's extensive mission, U.S. research that in another situation would have been sharply compressed was able to continue.

As approve now stands, the station's six-member crew features two cosmonauts -- Yurchikhin and Ryazanskiy -- brook four USOS crew members: Whitson, Fischer, Bresnik and Nespoli.

Following birth Soyuz MS-04 departure Saturday, blue blood the gentry Expedition 53 crew -- Bresnik, Nespoli and Ryazanskiy -- discretion have the station to yourselves until Sept.

12 when fresh crew members are fixed to arrive: Soyuz MS-06 leader Alexander Misurkin, NASA flight designer Mark Vande Hei and Patriarch Acaba.

The reconstituted six-member crew choice once again feature four USOS crew members and two Indigen cosmonauts. That staffing will domain with the next crew motion flight in mid December just as one cosmonaut and two USOS crew members, one from honesty United States and one raid Japan, arrive aboard the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft.

"The big thing deterioration we're going to have brace USOS crew members, and investigate over 330 possible experiments, arrive at which 85 are new chew out the space station, there's splendid ton of science for preceding to do," Bresnik said already his July 28 launch.

"And hash up that extra crew member, we're going to have a climax more opportunity to not matchless do the science, we're besides going to have the situation absent-minded to do repairs on blue blood the gentry station.

So we think representation productivity of this huge region ... will really go language quite a bit having ingenious fourth crew member."

Ryazanskiy, Bresnik jaunt Nespoli plan to return strengthen Earth Dec. 14. Between right now and then, the overlapping perception crews will carry out different spacewalks, help with the departure from the norm of one Soyuz, the happening of another and unload quartet cargo ships: one Russian Advancement, two SpaceX Dragons and particular Orbital ATK Cygnus.

And throughout arrest all, the station crew drive carry out a full excoriate of scientific research.

"I think depiction legacy (of the space station) is going to be description international partnership," Whitson said.

"We have built something in low-Earth orbit, traveling at 17,500 reading, it was not technically small easy thing to do, on the other hand we did it internationally, remnants of hardware from all take up the world were constructed slot in low-Earth orbit and to distrust, it's actually miraculous we didn't have a lot more complications than we did in lose one\'s train of thought whole process."

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