U.S. Astronaut, Crewmates Undock from the International Space Station

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub undocked from the International Space Station’s Prichal module ahead of a return to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft on Sept. 23 completing long-duration missions on the International Space Station. The trio will return to Earth a few hours following undocking for a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan. During her mission, Dyson spent 184 days in space living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program. Kononenko and Chub landed after spending 374 days in space. Video Courtesy: NASA Center Contact: Sandra Jones, 281-483-5111 HQ Contact: Joshua Finch, 202-358-1100 For more info: www.nasa.gov/station

What is said in the film

good morning once again from Mission Control in Houston and the International Space Station flight control room you are looking live at the soyu ms25 spacecraft that is attached to the pasal module on the Russian segment of the International Space Station inside the soyu three crew members NASA's Tracy Dyson and Ros Cosmos cosmonauts Al kenko and Nichol chbe are all suited up in their soal launch and entry suits ready to undock from the International Space Station some 35 minutes or so from now to begin the journey home and a parachute assisted landing on the step of Kazakhstan South Central kazakstan about 91 miles to the southeast of the remote town of jez kazgan aboard the soyu the three crew members Ali kenko the soyu commander who is strapped into the center seat of the center section of the soyuz The Descent module flank to his left by Nikolai chub and to his right by Tracy Dyson the soyu under the call sign of anares will soon be um opening of the hooks holding it to the pasal module that will be followed by Springs pushing off on both sides of the docking interface to allow the soyu to physically separate from the pral the UND knocking is scheduled at 3:36 and 302s a. m. Central Time 4:36 and 302s a. m. eastern time following the undocking of the soyu which will technically Mark the official end of expedition 71 and the beginning of expedition 72 on the International Space Station there will be two separation Burns by the soou thrusters the first will be an 8C burn of those engines at 339 and 302s a.

m. Central Time followed a minute and 20 seconds later by a second separation burn that will increase the opening rate between the soyu and the International Space Station ultimately resulting in the soy being some 41 kmet away from the station at the time of its deorbit burn just after 6:05 a. m. Central Time this morning a retrograde firing of the soyu engines for 4 minutes and 39 seconds to slow the soyou down allowing it to drop out of orbit for its high-speed entry back to Earth and that landing on the step of kazakstan the journey home for Dyson kononenko and Chu began on Sunday morning when the 12 crew members on board the International Space Station gathered in the Japanese kibbo module uh for a change of command ceremony in which konun Yenko only one of two uh crew members who have flown in space who have commanded the station on three separate occasions handed over the keys to the International Space Station to NASA's Sunny Williams let's take a look back at Sunday morning's change of command ceremony okay Houston I would like to thank all space agen space agencies and Mission Control Center for uh the great help and uh support from the ground thanks to all my crewmate for your friendship uh it has been a great time to work and a great pleasure to work uh and spend time uh together here as a big family in uh on board in the space station and right now I'm leaving my second home as a space station in Sanitas delicate hands I pass you uh the key to the International Space Station and some vs in Russian uh Comm so I guess I get to say a couple words so I appreciate it ALG this uh Expedition 71 has taught all of us a lot about uh flexibility um the ability to adapt to a number of amazing things um a lot of things weren't planned and somehow you guys put it all together and did it it's it's pretty amazing pretty impressive uh you adopted Butch and I even though that was not quite the plan but here we are as part of the family you welcomed uh don Alexi and Ivonne uh with open arms and uh with your soyu's crew and crew eight you have made this a great family we appreciate it ALG we'll miss your hundreds of stories around the dinner table but I guess that's what you get for having over a thousand days in space you get those stories right uh coia we're going to miss your Precision your professionalism but I guess that's what you get when you sign up for your rookie flight AS over a year in space and Tracy we're going to miss your desk and your organization and your ability to make order out of chaos even in the the craziest of times so we thank you all three of you for that so I'm going to try and station Houston uh thank you we'll be resuming normal operational audio uh 12 years and 7even days ago was the last time Sunny had the keys in her hand uh glad to have him back that reference uh was to Sunny Williams who just over 12 years ago was the commander for Expedition 33 now she assumes command for Expedition 72 aboard the International Space Station and again that expedition formally begins at physical separation between the soyuz and the pral module that is scheduled about 28 and A2 minutes from now the other uh pertinent statistics uh involve NASA's Tracy Dyson who today is coming home back to Earth to complete the third flight in her career this mission for Tracy Dyson spanned 184 days 2,944 orbits of the earth a mission uh of 78 million statued miles for Ali kenko and Nikolai chub they surpassed the all-time record for a single International Space Station Mission this past Friday today they come home with 37 4 days in space on this flight a total of 5,984 orbits and 1586 million statute miles and for ala kononenko who is the all-time record holder for most aggregate days in space he uh will arrive back on Earth in a few hours having acred 1,111 days on his five missions out of the uh grip of the planet earth kenko has more than 200 additional days more than Gennady pedala the Russian cosmina who is now in second place on the all-time endurance list well you see again it went off is it accompanied by a sound yes that's the matter it's uh enunciating the information okay copy I we'll tell this we'll tell them right now maybe they will come up with the recommendation a little over 3 hours ago the uh 12 crew members uh on the International Space Station gathered in the small passageway of the prall module to say goodbye to one another con o in the green shirt there uh the u nine crew members left aboard the International Space Station now part of expedition 72 as soon as the soyu undocks a few minutes from now led by NASA's Sunny Williams who's the new commander of the station joined by Matt Dominic Mike Barrett Janette EPS Don petett and Butch Wilmore along with three Russian cosmonauts Alexi oin Ivon Vagner and Alexander greenin the uh three departing crew members Dyson kenko and Chu made their way in the soyu spacecraft uh hatches were closed at 12:02 a. m.

central time 1:02 a. m. eastern time and uh after that the three departing crew members began the process of conducting leak checks and then dawned their SOA launch and entry suits having also completed the leak checks on their suits everything in good shape there and a few minutes ago flight controllers here at Mission Control in Houston uh conducted their poll and all positions are go for the undocking of the soyu to begin the journey home for Dyson kenko and Chu the three crew members are in the center section of that soyu vehicle that you see mated at the top of your screen to the prall module in The Descent module Al kenko using the call sign an teres uh for this part of the journey home from undocking through Landing kenko is in the center seat of soyu's Commander flank to his left by Nikolai chub who is board engineer number one and to his right by NASA's Tracy Dyson who is board engineer number two the sequence of events as they will unfold over the next few hours start off with the undocking command to begin the initiation of the opening of the hooks holding the soyu to the pasal module that command will be initiated about 22 and A2 minutes from now the undocking itself as we mentioned scheduled at 3:36 and 302s a. m. Central Time 4:36 and 302s a.

m. eastern time that'll be followed by two separation burns the first and 8sec burn of the soyu engines about 3 minutes after the UN docking itself and then a minute and 20 seconds later a second separation burn to initiate a faster opening rate between the soy and the station that will leave the soyu uh a couple of hours from now for the deorbit burn that is scheduled at 6:05 and 46 seconds a. m. Central Time a 4minute 39 second retrograde firing of the soyu engines to slow the soyu down by 128 m/ second allowing it to uh slowly drop out of orbit for its highspeed entry back into the Earth's atmosphere some 28 minutes after the deorbit burn with the so pointed in the direction of travel back to Earth uh there will be a command for the pyrotechnic separation of the three sections of the soyuz that module separation scheduled at 6:33 and 32 seconds a. m.

Central Time 7:33 and 32 seconds a. m. eastern time just 3 minutes after the module separation with the soyu heat shield in the direction of travel uh to ablate the heat that will build up around the soy to about 2500 Dees fahit the soy will enter into the um plasma regime if you will this is the period of peak heating on the spacecraft as it re-enters the atmosphere that plasma regime and a blackout of communications is likely to last about 5 minutes in duration uh with the crew then experiencing maximum g-loads of about four to five G's on their bodies also uh experiencing the first tug of gravity against themselves uh for Konan Yenko and Chu the first sensation of gravity in over a year for Tracy Dyson the first sensation of gravity in over 6 months the command to open the parachutes on the soyuz is scheduled at an altitude of about 6 and2 miles above the Earth uh the command is scheduled to be issued at 6:44 and 55 seconds a. m. Central Time 7:44 and 55 seconds a.

m. eastern time the parachute deployment sequence is triggered by a barometric pressure sensor at an altitude of 41,000 ft at this point the main parachute cover is jettison by pyrro and springs that pulls out two extraction shoots which in turns pull uh which in turn pulls out out the drug shoot that in turn pulls out the main shoot on the soyu this all takes about 20 seconds to occur at about 18,000 ft in altitude commands are then issued to jettison the heat shield inhibit the entry control thr control thrusters and to open up valves to vent all the hydrogen peroxide fuel for the entry control thrusters and the oxygen in the life support system tank if we are fortunate enough to have video from The Landing site at that time you may see a white Vapor emanating from the so that's a normal occurrence a combination of hydrogen peroxide and oxygen venting into the air the purpose of this is to Safe the vehicle for landing the search and Recovery forces and the energia recovery teams do not want any hazardous gases to remain in those tanks when the soft Landing thrusters fire about 2 seconds before touchdown and before the vehicle is back on Earth this way the ground support team can approach the vehicle immediately to begin safing the vehicle and extracting the crew from the spacecraft today's Landing is scheduled about 1 hour and 13 minutes before sunset at the Landing site in Kazakhstan Landing scheduled at 6:59 and 22 seconds a. m. Central Time 7:59 and 22 seconds a. m.

eastern time which will be 4:59 p. m. at the Landing site in Kazakhstan the weather forecast uh issued by the space flight meteorology group calls for scattered clouds at 8,000 ft scattered clouds at 25,000 ft winds uh out of 280° 18 knots peaking to 24 a bit Breezy but the temperature is ideal for this first full day of the autumnal equinox 73 degrees Fahrenheit scheduled to greet the crew as they're extracted from the soyu spacecraft the rosava search and Recovery forces Departed the staging city of caranda Kazakhstan several hours ago embedded in that team is uh half a dozen NASA support Personnel they flew on an antinoff 26 fixed wi aircraft from caraga to jez Kazan which is just about 91 miles to the northwest of the intended Landing site for the soyu vehicle the search and Recovery forces and the NASA team are at the jez kazgan airport they will board helicopters right around the time of the deorbit burn to begin to make their way to The Landing site and ultimately uh move into a racetrack pattern around the landing site in those hilos uh awaiting the arrival of the soyu under its shoots once the seuse touches down those helicopters will land Russian mi8 helicopters will land in sequential fashion to begin the process of approaching the vehicle and extracting the crew the three crew members Tracy Dyson aled kenko and Nikolai chub will be uh removed from The soyu Descent module and will be placed in reclining chairs more comfortable chairs so that they can have a few minutes to get their equilibrium back before they're brought in those chairs into a nearby inflatable medical tent to get out of their soal launch and entry suits and into more comfortable flight suits they will then uh about an hour and a half after touchdown be uh brought to individual helicopters with their support Personnel for a 2-hour helicopter ride back to the staging city of caranda where Tracy Dyson will board a NASA jet for the trip back to Houston and the two cosmonauts kenko and Chu will board a gagaran cosmina training aircraft for a flight back to their training base and their homes in Star City Russia outside of Moscow I'm tius we're currently preparing a recommendation for you okay copy sounds good once again a good view of the soyu ms25 strapped in their respective seats in The Descent module Al kononenko the soyu commander under the call sign of anares for this trip back to Earth flank to his left by Nikolai Chu and to his right by Tracy Dyson of NASA they are all set to begin the journey home the undocking command is scheduled just about 14 and a half minutes from now it'll take about 90 seconds for the hooks holding the soy us to the prall module that's the multi- hatched docking node the node module if you will that is at the bottom of your screen that is a fixed to the naoka multi-purpose laboratory module on the Earth facing side of the International Space Station the station itself is currently flying 260 statued miles above the Earth over the Arabian Sea on a trajectory from Southwest to Northeast about to cross the west coast of India s the command 80° L3 copy in audible L 138 we have l13 eliminated with sent um 8 de copy as we approach the time of undocking uh once again Tracy Dyson is wrapping up 184 days in space 182 of which were actually aboard the International Space Station her Transit from the launch site in the bik and or cosmodrome to the station took two days as opposed to the uh more typical two orbit uh Journey that many of the soyu vehicles take she will have accured 373 days in space on her three flights when that comes to an end with the landing at 6:59 a. m. Central Time 7:59 a.

m. eastern time as we mentioned before kenko and chub will have loged 374 days in space on their flight to the International Space Station that's an all-time single Mission endurance record for any flight to the International Space Station K Yenko is wrapping up 1,111 days in space on this his fifth space flight this was Nikolai chub's first flight into space and just to punctuate this year-long mission for kononenko and Chu they saw the arrival of 14 different visiting vehicles and the departure of 13 visiting Vehicles during their time aboard the International Space Station R 17 do we send it now or in this view on the very far right of your screen is the soyuz ms26 spacecraft that is docked to the rosette module on the earth facing side of the Russian segment of the station that's the vehicle that 12 days ago brought Don peted of NASA along with Alexi oin and Ivan Vagner of Ros Cosmos to the International Space Station for the start of their six months aboard the orbital laboratory input to approach on in one left in four minutes you need to send it from the um way two inside 10 and A2 minutes until the uh command is issued for the hooks holding the soyu to the bral module to open again that will take about 90 seconds to accomplish Springs on both sides of the docking interface will push off against one another to create the physical separation the actual undocking of the soyu from pral that is scheduled at uh 3:36 and 30 seconds a. m. Central Time and the official end of expedition 71 the official start of expedition 72 for in this view you can see uh the soyu ms25 spacecraft the solar arrays are attached to the lower section of the soyu that's called the instrumentation and propulsion module the three crew members are strapped into into their seats in the center section or The Descent module that's the only component of the soyuz that makes it back to Earth and at the uh very top of the soyuz or in the far left corner of your screen uh that uh bulbus section is called the orbital module just a few seconds after the deorbit burn is complete uh later this morning that upper section will be uh depressurized to set the stage for the pyrotechnic separation of the three sections of the soyuz as it begins its entry back into the Earth's atmosphere at 1128 0 ascending E2 that is correct nikai it's less than a minute seconds 11 uh 2 80 cent E2 less than 7 minutes now from the uh undocking command uh accelerometer okay we got it copy I do not see indicator mode yet we got indicator and the maneuver we see the video from input two parameters and nominal copy display on info one turn on the headlight okay I'm sending uh 17 command s 17 copy Russian flight controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center outside of Moscow relaying uh final instructions to Al kenko the soy Commander this is a view from the balcony camera overlooking uh the uh large International Space Station Mission Control Room in carof outside of Moscow they are in uh control of this operation today they will be conducting continuous voice Communications with the soyou crew until it is out of range of the International Space Station at a range of about 200 kilm distance is the end of guaranteed voice Communications capability between the Russian flight controllers and the soyu the um voice will be picked up by that antinoff 26 fixed wi aircraft once it arrives in the vicinity of the landing site to act as a uh Airborne command and relay station to provide data and voice back to those Russian flight controllers at the Russian Mission Control Center we also are likely to lose Communications with the soyu During the 5minute period in which uh the vehicle is in the highest heat peaking regime it's called entry into plasma and exit out of plasma the temperatures around the soy uh and the ionization around the spacecraft will build to about 2500 degrees Fahrenheit and so voice Communications as the soyu uh is further and further away from the space station itself will be sporadic and choppy at times less than four minutes now until the command is sent to begin the initiation of the opening of the hooks holding the soyu ms25 to the International Space Station the International Space Station now flying about 260 miles over southwestern China as we approach the time of undocking again undock scheduled at 3:36 and 302s a. m.

Central Time anus Moscow go ahead andus could you please uh give us the time 11:32 33 34 we are in VF comp fast right now so the uh the clocks is correct the clocks the time is matching we're in a Handover uh between satellites on the tracking and data relay satellite system we'll be regaining video from the International Space Station here shortly uh we had short losos in a minute we will we will send the seven command copy okay thank you you improved uh the video for us back now with downlink video from the International Space Station just over a minute away now from the undocking command being issued initiating the opening of the hooks holding the so use to the prall module unintelligible you go to send the seven command the seven D 11 D5 G 17 the soyu's docking mechanism has now been powered up less than a minute until the undocking command is issued 17 uh command ready it is the open uh hooks command at 11:36 no at 11:35 this command should be sent I issued a GC command uh so what about the brighteners it is at your discretion guys seconds away now from the issuance of the undocking command to begin the opening of the hooks command at 11:35 copy 1135 de 17 is sent the undocking command has been sent 90 seconds away from physical separation is not illuminated at 11355 eight the mechanical uh contact uh in uh indicator is not illuminated anymore copy standing by for undocking and there it is 1120 3620 separation is confirmed physical separation confirmed the soyu ms25 is free of its moing please uh Expedition 71 is in the history books Expedition 72 officially underway copy so the interface surface is clean cot thank you and we wish you successful Landing thank you Alexi all those guys who are on the station thank you so much and see you on the ground Expedition 72 Commander Sunny Williams ringing the traditional Bell on board the station to Herald uh the departure of the soyuz ms25 the first of the two separation Burns and 8C burn of the soy's engines coming up at uh 339 and 302s a. m. Central Time undocking occurring over Eastern Mongolia uh it's U very clear correct yeah it's the other side that we cannot see with our eyes two minutes after separation copy Tracy Dyson Al kenko and Nikolai chub on the first leg of their Journey back to Earth with a landing scheduled at 6:59 a. m. Central Time 7:59 a.

m. eastern time 4:59 p. m. at the Landing site in Kazakhstan about 91 miles to the southeast of the town of jez kazgan 2 minutes and a half after separation copy three minutes after separation and Depo thrusters are firing 4 seconds this is the first of the two separation Burns is not eliminated now we uh maneuver is confirmed it's um 3 and a half degrees copy first of the two separation Burns was reported to be nominal a slight roll in the soyu as planned to put it in the correct orientation for the second of the two separation Burns coming up in just about a minute uh we have attitude Readiness flag copy the second of the two Burns will be 15 seconds in duration the it will be the second burn at 4:20 and it will before 15 seconds copy uh please provide a running commentary we do not have video uh we are observing station we can see station in the crosshairs um through the Periscope uh 4:15 after separation now we're receiving the video on the ground and DEP is firing at 14 and the second separation burn underway and the burn is now complete and good the burn is complete copy 15 seconds copy you go to send 18 command and uh we're sending the command okay so it is z or inhibit of computer control good opening rate reported between the so and the International Space Station N I select A1 about 2 hours and 23 minutes from now will be the deorbit burn it is sent that will enable the soy to drop out of orbit that will occur at the time that the soy is about 41 km away from the International Space Station work the eight uh we are sending the command uh the 11 is not eliminated the 17 not eliminated gas 17 is not eliminated copy and we are deactivating the flood light S8 command it is off copy so you can uh transfer route control handle to the transport position 160 uh is the uh 10 pressure the Russian flight controllers that you see there at the Russian Mission Control Center in corov relaying uh systems checks for soyu Commander ala kenko flying the ms25 as the soyu Commander in the center seat of The Descent module under the call sign of anies command uh the activation copied the uh other Pages the next pages are 53 54 of the procedure good view of the soyu uh with the U structure of the International Space Station in the foreground okay so there no change in the spherical tanks and we're sending K Yenko and Chu departing uh this complex that had been their home for over a year and a record setting stay of two of 374 days on board the station Tracy Dyson departing after 184 days in space 182 days aboard the international Outpost R control is in the neutral position right now copy and 1303 is an accelerometer should be activated via Coral command duing copy so now relax guys for a while copy for your awareness all these settings for the uh control descent are already Uplink copy that report indicating that all of the U Telemetry settings for the deorbit burn that's coming up at 605 and 46 seconds a. m.

Central Time are on board the soyu on its in its computers so the crew at this point uh can uh settle back and have a short period of time to relax a little over an hour from now the crew will provide a report on their Readiness for descent well in advance of the deorbit burn unintelligible and again at the time of the deorbit burn the uh search and Recovery forces called Ros aviaa along with a team of NASA Personnel they will be boarding helicopters to take off for the landing site and will arrive at the Landing site around the same time that the soyou will be visible under its main shoot waiting for the soy to touchdown and then descend themselves in those helicopters one by one to approach the vehicle and begin the process of extracting the crew from The Descent module just a recap the undocking occurred on time at 3:36 and 32s a. m. Central Time 436 and 302s a. m. eastern time while the International Space Station and the soyuz ms25 flew 260 miles over Eastern Mongolia this is been control Houston uh as the International Space Station and the soyu ms25 fly over the Northwestern Pacific Ocean everything in good shape as the soy Flies free now Expedition 72 formerly underway aboard the international complex with nine crew members remaining on board as Tracy Dyson of NASA and Ros Cosmos cosmonauts Al keno and Nikolai chub have a short period of time to relax in The Descent module of the soyu before they prepare for the deorbit burn that will begin the final leg of the journey back to Earth and a parachute assisted landing on the step of Kazakhstan at 6:59 a.

m. Central Time 7:59 a. m. eastern time with that we'll wrap up this second of our three broadcasts for the morning and uh invite you to return with us at 5:45 a. m.

Central Time 6:45 a. m. eastern time for the deorbit burn and Landing the re-entry of the soyu ms25 and all the landing activities on the step of Kazakhstan as Tracy Dyson Ali kenko and Nikolai CH prepare for their return back to Earth we'll see you back here in a couple of hours until then this is Mission Control Houston for

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