NASA’s Don Pettit, two astronaut crew members, summarizes seven months of space station visits

On the eve of his 70th birthday, NASA’s oldest active astronaut Don Pettit and two astronaut crew members evacuated from the International Space Station on Saturday and worked for a nightly night backflow to end the 220-day expedition.

Pettit, Soyuz MS-26/72S Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner made a birthday call from the port of Rassvet in Russia at 5:57 pm Eastern Time.

Russian rehabilitation personnel and NASA personnel were deployed nearby to help return crew members withdraw from the SOYUZ Descent module and start re-adjusting gravity during seven months of weightlessness and to family and friends via preliminary medical examinations and satellite phone calls.

Assuming landing on time, the mission duration will stay within 220 days and nearly 9 hours, spanning 3,520 tracks and 93.3 million miles Since its launch on September 11 last year Beconar Universe from Kazakhstan.

On the touchdown, Ovchinin will have a 595-day space record on four flights, followed by Pettit, whose total will reach 590 days on four of his own flights. The total number of Vagners will be 416 days during the two space station visits.

The world record of the most accumulated time in space is Astronaut Oleg KononenkoThey spent nearly 1,111 days on track in five missions. The American record is retained by astronaut Peggy Whitson. She spent 675 days in space on four flights.

As for Pettit’s age, John Glenn was the first American in orbit, when he was 77, when he was on a shuttle as a NASA space flight participant in 1998. He saved the record as the oldest man flying in orbit.

Ovchinin and Vagner return to Star City near Moscow from Hazakhstan, while Pettit will fly to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for more detailed tests and begin his physical recovery.

The three-man return to Earth marks the final chapter, starting with an extended crew spin SpaceX crew launches 10 Commanders Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and astronaut Kirill Peskov were conducted on March 14.

Crew 10 arrives at the station clears the road for crew 9 Commander Nick Hague, Cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, Starliner Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Pilot Sunita Williams Return to Earth in four days.

Then the Russians Launched alternative to Pettit crew – Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky and NASA’s Jonny Kim – April 8, Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit return to Earth on Saturday.

During a brief ceremony on Friday, Ovchinin moved the station’s command to Onishi.

“It was my honor to accept the orders from the International Space Station,” Onishi said. “I felt so special that I took over your orders from you because it has been nearly nine years since we met here during the 48 expedition in 2016. At the time, we were both rookies, here, we were two veterans and ISS commanders.”

“Human space flight is not easy. Only the continuous dedication of a generation can get humanity here. Now, we have four rookies (on the ship). I’m sure one day they will come back to become commanders…that’s how we will continue to develop human space flight,” Onishi said.

Since November 2, 2000, the ISS has been rotated by the rotating personnel. Planned to retire within five years, the laboratory faces problems in multiple ways, from air leakage in the Russian sector to uncertain funding, shortages of spare parts and delays in recharge.

“Space flight is difficult and risky,” Rich Williams, a member of NASA’s independent aerospace safety advisory group, told the group in a public meeting Thursday. “The International Space Station has entered its most dangerous period of existence.”

“ISS managers, crews and support staff always make space flights look easy. Space flights are not easy, and the risks of participating in ISS programs are getting worse,” Williams said.

The air leakage in the stern compartment of the Zvezda module is presumably the result of metal fatigue and repeated pressure cycles as the visits to Soyuz crew ships and the progress of the freight freighters come and go.

“At this point, the main risk mitigation activities include applying and repairing materials on known cracks and limitations…pressurization cycles to try to limit stress and fatigue,” Williams said. “The ISS program is closely monitoring this issue, and the team believes it is one of our biggest concerns.”

NASA has hired SpaceX to build a U.S. Deorbit vehicle or USDV to drive the million-pound space station to the atmosphere in 2030 to ensure it breaks down on the Southern Pacific, away from transport lanes and densely populated areas. USDV is expected to arrive in the laboratory in 2029.

“Implementing and utilizing this USDV feature is critical to ensuring that the risk of dehydrated debris meets established government public safety standards,” Williams said. “If there are blurers on the ISS prior to USDV delivery, the risk of ISS debris will increase by orders of magnitude.”

He said NASA and Russian space officials are working to “solve challenges related to achieving safe striping capabilities, whether for the end of life and risk management accidents.”

The main problem facing the International Space Station is what Williams calls “the ISS budget shortage.” NASA’s fiscal 2024 budget includes nearly $1 billion for station operation and maintenance costs, and an additional $1.6 billion for unit launch and resupply missions.

“It is crucial to maintain adequate budget and resources until the vehicle is safely re-entered, not only to ensure the safety of daily operations in high-risk environments, but also to ensure a controlled, secure safety blurer for the sake of public safety, under the requirements of debris footprints,” Williams said.

All in all, he said: “The group appreciates the outstanding operational excellence of the ISS program, but remains deeply concerned about the increase and cascading risks of participating in the program in the coming years.”