International Space Station Status Report #50

Report #50
8:30 p.m. CDT, Monday, Oct. 10
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

After traveling 75 million miles during six months on the international
space station, Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA ISS Science
Officer John Phillips returned to Earth today. With them was American Greg
Olsen, who spent eight days on the station under a commercial agreement with
the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The ISS Soyuz 9 spacecraft with Krikalev, Phillips and Olsen landed in
north-central Kazakhstan, about 53 miles (85 kilometers) northeast of
Arkalyk, at 8:09 p.m. CDT. The crew's families will greet them at Star City,
Russia, near Moscow, early tomorrow. Krikalev and Phillips will remain in
Star City for post-flight debriefings before returning to Houston in late
October. Krikalev and Phillips launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,
Kazakhstan, April 14. They spent 179 days, 23 minutes in space. During their
mission, they welcomed the Space Shuttle Discovery crew as it returned the
shuttle to flight on STS-114.

While on the station, Kirkalev amassed more time in space than any human. He
is a veteran of six spaceflights, including two to the Russian space station
Mir, two shuttle flights, and the first international space station
expedition. Krikalev has 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes of time in space.
On Aug. 16, he surpassed the previous record set by Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev
of 747 days, 14 hours and 14 minutes.

The new station crew, Expedition 12 Commander and NASA Science Officer Bill
McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, will have light duty for the
next few days as they rest from a busy handover. They will remain in orbit
six months, during which they are planned to perform at least two
spacewalks. The first spacewalk will occur in early November. For more about
the international space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

The next ISS status report will be issued Friday, Oct. 14, or earlier if
events warrant.

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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info