14 DAY TRIAL // Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, both from the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) and NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank are on their way to Earth today, April 27, after completing their long-term stay aboard the International Space Station.
The three spent 165 days in space, or nearly five and a half months, since launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on November 14, 2011. They docked to the ISS after a two-day chase through low-Earth orbit (LEO), on November 16.
Their departure from the orbital lab today – aboard the same RosCosmos Soyuz TMA-22 space capsule on which they flew to space – also marks the end of Expedition 30, and the beginning of Expedition 31, aboard the ISS.
Undocking occurred at 4:18 am EDT (0818 GMT) on Friday, after the trio finished greeting cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, European Space Agency (ESA) flight engineer André Kuipers and NASA astronaut Don Pettit. They now form the basis of Expedition 31.
The other three flight engineers that will complete the current skeleton crew are Joseph M. Acaba (NASA), Gennady Padalka (RosCosmos) and Sergei Revin (RosCosmos). They will launch to space aboard the Soyuz TMA-04 M space capsule, currently scheduled to take off on May 15.
As for the Expedition 30 crew, they are scheduled to land in the Kazakh steppes later today, at around 7:45 am EDT (1145 GMT), Space reports. After touchdown, they will be retrieved by Russian emergency response personnel, and carried by helicopters to their first medical check-ups.
Their bodies will require some time to readjust to gravity, and all three will need to undergo a few physiotherapy sessions in order to regain muscle tone. After completing their quarantine, Burbank will be sent home to the United States.
During Expedition 30, the NASA astronaut was the Commander of the ISS. He handed over his position to Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, during a ceremony held on the station on April 25.
“It's hard for me to believe that our nearly six-month expedition is coming to an end. It seems like Anton, Anatoly and I just arrived in our Soyuz yesterday,” Burbank said during the ceremony.
Before the remainder of Expedition 31 arrives on the station, the three astronauts currently aboard the lab will receive the visit of the first private space capsule, the SpaceX Dragon. The vehicle is scheduled to launch from Florida on May 7.