News

September 11, 2013.
The mission of Soyuz TMA-08M is completed.
The crew of P. Vinogradov, А. Misurkin and C. Cassidy are back on the Earth!

At 06:58:30, Moscow Time, the descent vehicle of Soyuz TMA-08M manned transport spacecraft landed in its designated landing area 146 kilometers to the South-East of Jezkazgan in the Republic of Kazakstan. All operations relating to the descent, search and landing of the descent vehicle went normally.

Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy have completed their mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under the program of Expedition ISS-35/36.

At the Mission Control Center near Moscow (MCC-M), the operations in support of the Soyuz TMA-08M de-orbiting maneuvers and re-entry, the search for the landed descent vehicle and evacuation of the crew from it were performed under the supervision of the State Commission for flight tests of manned space systems (chaired by O.P. Frolov), and Technical Manager for flight tests of manned space systems (Manager - General Designer, V.A. Lopota).

During re-entry the flight was controlled by the Lead Operations Control Team (Flight Director is the First deputy general designer of RSC Energia V.A. Soloviev) working at MCC-M in cooperation with the specialists of the Air and Space Search and Rescue, other Russian organizations and services, as well as the US Mission Control Center in Houston.

The final descent and landing operations of the spacecraft were witnessed by representatives of Roskosmos and foreign space agencies, Russian companies and organizations involved in the ISS program who were present at MCC-M.

Currently continuing their work onboard the ISS until the next Russian manned spacecraft arrives is the ISS-37 crew consisting of: Russian cosmonaut F. Yurchikhin , NASA astronaut K. Nyberg and ESA astronaut L. Parmitano.

After the crew evacuation from the descent vehicle of the Soyuz TMA-08M, a press conference was held at MCC-M for Russian and foreign mass media.

For information

RSC Energia is the prime manned space flight organization in the Russian rocket and space industry, responsible for the development of the ISS Russian Segment, its integration into the Space Station and its operation, including development and operation of the principal modules of the Segment (Zvezda, Pirs, Poisk, Rassvet, Nauka etc.), manufacturing, launch and operation of Soyuz TMA and Progress M spacecraft.

The duration of the space flight of P.Vinogradov, А. Misurkin and C.Cassidy was more than 166 days.

During the space mission the ISS-36 crew received two Russian Progress cargo vehicles, Soyuz ТМА-09М manned transport spacecraft, European automated transfer vehicle ATV-4 "Albert Einstein", Japanese transfer vehicle HTV-4 "Kounotori", performed the planned scientific and applied research program.