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ISS' Expedition 22 Officially Conclude

Expedition 23 will begin shortly

Mar 18, 2010 10:49 GMT  ·  By
The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft carrying Expedition 22 crew members Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev undocks from the Poisk module
   The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft carrying Expedition 22 crew members Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev undocks from the Poisk module

After more than 167 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut left the orbital outpost aboard a Soyuz space capsule. The event marks the end of Expedition 22 to the station, and marks the beginning of Expedition 23. Officially, the new long-duration mission will start on April 4, when three new astronauts will arrive aboard the lab in another Soyuz capsule. The new crew members will include two cosmonauts for the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos), and one astronaut from NASA.

The people who left the station are former ISS commander Jeff Williams (NASA), and first flight engineer Maxim Suraev (RosCosmos). They boarded the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft earlier today, and separated from their docking berth on the Russian-built Poisk Mini-Research Module at around 4:03 am EDT (0803 GMT). After reentering the Earth's atmosphere, the crew of two is scheduled to make a parachute landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan, at around 7.23 am EDT (1123 GMT). They will be recovered from their spacecraft by Russian ground forces.

Upon arriving back on Earth, astronauts that spent five to six months on the ISS need a lot of time to readjust their bodies to the rigors of being subjected to a gravitational pull. They need to undergo extensive recovery therapy, in order to build up muscle and bone mass again, and to regain mobility. The two astronauts also took of from Kazakhstan, namely from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is operated by the RosCosmos. Launch pads here are used to deliver both Soyuz and Progress unmanned resupply capsules to the ISS.

Currently stationed on the orbital facility are flight engineers Soichi Noguchi (JAXA) and T.J. Creamer (NASA). The new ISS Commander is Oleg Kotov (RosCosmos), who will remain in charge of the extended, six-person crew. These three astronauts will remain in space until June. They arrived in December of last year, aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft, which currently acts as a lifeboat on the station. Scheduled to dock on the station in April are flight engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko, who will use the Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft. The capsule will then remain attached to the facility, as the second lifeboat.