April 16, 2020
Categories: ISS, Soyuz

Onboard the International Space Station, the 62nd long expedition is completing.

The crew members of the “Soyuz MS-15” manned spacecraft – Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skrypochka, NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir – are preparing to return to Earth in accordance with the flight schedule.

So, this night at the station the “change of crews” was completed.

The commander of the 62nd long expedition, cosmonaut Oleg Skrypochka, who has been leading it since February this year, and the commander of the 63rd expedition, astronaut Christopher Cassidy, signed an act of transfer of authority.

Oleg Skrypochka also wished the cosmonauts and astronauts a successful flight and handed the symbolic key to the station to Christopher Cassidy.

At the end of the ceremony, astronaut Andrew Morgan, according to the old naval tradition, gave a symbolic bell ringing, signaling the end of one expedition and the beginning of another.

Currently, Oleg Skrypochka, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir are engaged in operations to prepare for landing.

In the descent vehicle of the “Soyuz MS-15” spacecraft, they will bring the equipment and cases to be returned with the results of scientific experiments, conducted on board the International Space Station.

According to the Mission Control Center, the closure of passage hatches between the “Zvezda” module and the “Soyuz MS-15” manned spacecraft was tentatively scheduled at 01:30 (Moscow time) on April 17, 2020, with undocking at 04:53 (Moscow time) and landing of the descent vehicle – at 08:16 (Moscow time) the same day.

All operations will be broadcast live on the website of the Roscosmos State Corporation and the social networks of Roscosmos.

After undocking the ship in Earth orbit, the crew of the long-term expedition ISS-63, consisting of cosmonauts Roscosmos Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Wagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy, will continue to work.

More from this category:
March 10, 2015

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka expects to set up a new record spending 1000 days on the orbit,  as he told the journalists at press-conference taking…

full story
February 2, 2015

At 15.31, Moscow time, February 01, 2015, rocket and space industry launching crews of Baikonur spaceport successfully launched Proton-M booster with Briz-M upper stage and…

full story
January 11, 2019

On January 11 Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre celebrates 59th anniversary. It was founded on January 11, 1960. First specialists paved the way to space for…

full story
January 26, 2022

The Japanese company Axelspace Corporation has signed a contract with GK Launch Services (a subsidiary of Glavkosmos, part of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation) for…

full story
July 16, 2020

On July 16, 1965, the first scientific station, Proton-1, was launched to conduct research in the field of nuclear and space physics. In accordance with…

full story
July 14, 2019

At the Baikonur cosmodrome the crews of the “Soyuz MS-13” spacecraft are preparing for the upcoming launch. The main crew includes cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, astronauts…

full story
June 1, 2015

Steering engine of Proton-M 3rd stage failed because of excessive vibration loads, – Roscosmos Head Igor Komarov reported. The reason of Proton-M off-nominal flight was…

full story
September 15, 2021

A successful launch of 34 OneWeb satellites aboard the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage was executed on Tuesday, September 14, at 18:07…

full story