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Three
astronauts return to Earth after fixing undocking glitch
Saturday, September 25, 2010 01:32:18 PM,
DPA
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Washington:
A Russian Soyuz capsule landed Saturday in Kazakhstan, returning
three residents of the International Space Station to Earth a day
later than planned because of an undocking malfunction.
Parachutes braked the descent of the Soyuz re-entry craft as it
landed on the steppe of southern Kazakhstan near Arkalyk, with
Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and American
Tracy Caldwell Dyson on board, the US space agency said. The trio
had spent six months in space.
The Soyuz undocked from the space station Saturday after the crew
made repairs to fix the problem in the station's docking module
that delayed their departure, originally scheduled for Friday.
Hooks had failed to open to release the Soyuz from the station,
and the crew and engineers on the ground later determined that the
problem occurred because of a failed hatch sensor, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said.
The malfunction prevented mission control in Moscow from receiving
the "hatch lock" signal although the seals between the station and
Soyuz capsule were functioning properly, NASA said.
Station flight engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin then installed jumper
cables to bypass the malfunctioning sensor, allowing the Soyuz to
undock at 0202 GMT Saturday.
It was the first time in the station's history that a Soyuz
capsule had not departed from the station as planned. The problem
came shortly after a July incident in which an unmanned Russian
cargo rocket veered out of control and flew past the space station
as it was trying to dock there.
After undocking Saturday, the Soyuz performed a separation burn to
move 12 km away from the station as it headed back to Earth. Less
than an hour before landing, it fired its rockets again for a
de-orbit burn, which slows the spacecraft, for its 0523 GMT
landing.
The station's current three-member crew is scheduled to be
replenished with the October 7 launch of a Soyuz capsule from the
Russian space centre at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, with cosmonauts
Alexander Kaleri, Oleg Skripochka and astronaut Scott Kelly on
board.
They are to dock two days later with the station.
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