After spending nine months aboard International Space Station, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and also Andrew Morgan went back to Earth Friday, in addition to Soyuz Leader Oleg Skripochka of the Russian room agency Roscosmos.
The trio departed the International Space Station at 9:53 p.m. EDT Thursday as well as made a secure, parachute-assisted landing at 1:16 a.m. Friday in Kazakhstan (11:16 a.m. local time), southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan. During their very first spaceflight, Morgan and Meir added to hundreds of experiments in biology, Earth science, human research, physical scientific researches and technology growth.
Morgan’s nine-month mission started July 20, 2019. His 272-day trip covered Expeditions 60-62, incorporating an overall of 4,352 Planet orbits and also a journey of 115.3 million miles. Morgan’s extensive stay in space will certainly enhance knowledge about exactly how the human body reacts to longer-duration spaceflight, with the various investigations he sustained, including the Liquid Changes study. He additionally performed 7 spacewalks– totaling 45 hours and also 48 minutes– four of which were to improve as well as extend the life of the terminal’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer as it looks for proof of dark matter in the universe.
Meir as well as Skripochka, that launched on the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft Sept. 25, 2019, invested 205 days precede, making 3,280 orbits of Earth throughout a journey of 86.9 million miles. Throughout her first spaceflight, Meir conducted the initial 3 all-woman spacewalks with crewmate Christina Koch of NASA, totaling 21 hrs as well as 44 mins. Amongst the investigations to which she contributed is a study co-led by a former associate of hers, examining exactly how human heart tissue functions precede. Skripochka is completing his third spaceflight for an advancing 536 days in orbit.
After post-landing medical checks, the team will certainly return by Russian helicopters to the recovery hosting city in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where they will split up. Morgan and also Meir will certainly board a NASA aircraft situated in the surrounding city of Kyzlorda, Kazakhstan, for a trip back to Houston. Skripochka will board a Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center airplane in Baikonur to return to his home in Celebrity City, Russia.
Among the research study experiments to which the Expedition 62 staff added was the Bead Development Research, which evaluates water bead development, water flow as well as, indirectly, the regarded pressure of current shower head technology as compared to the industry-standard use jet nozzles. The research study analyzes bead dimension and also speed and exactly how they affect the feeling of increased stress for the end user. Another experiment to which the staff contributed was Mochii, a mini scanning electron microscope used to perform real-time, on-site imaging as well as make-up dimensions of particles. Analysis of tiny and also tiny fragments is an essential requirement for human space expedition past low-Earth orbit when examples can not be gone back to Earth right away for analysis.
When the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft with Meir, Morgan and also Skripochka departed, Exploration 63 formally began aboard the station, with NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy working as station commander as well as Roscosmos’ Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner acting as flight engineers.
The staff members of Exploration 63 are set up to be aboard the station to invite NASA astronauts Robert Behnken as well as Douglas Hurley, the very first astronauts to release from American soil to the spaceport station because 2011, on NASA’s upcoming SpaceX Demo-2 flight test.
Jessica Ulrika Meir (July 1, 1977) is a NASA astronaut, marine biologist, and physiologist. She was previously Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, following postdoctoral research in comparative physiology at the University of British Columbia. She has studied the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguins in Antarctica, and the physiology of bar-headed geese, which are able to migrate over the Himalayas. In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 4 (NEEMO 4) crew. In 2013 she was selected by NASA to Astronaut Group 21. Meir launched on September 25, 2019, to the ISS onboard Soyuz MS-15, where she will serve as a flight Engineer during Expedition 61 and 62. On October 18, 2019, Meir and Christina Koch were the first women to participate in an all-female spacewalk.
