Nov 5 2014

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY M14-185 NASA Television to Broadcast Return of Space Station Crew

Three of the crew members aboard the International Space Station are scheduled to depart the orbiting laboratory Sunday, Nov. 9 after almost six months aboard. NASA Television will provide complete coverage.

Expedition 41 Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 7:30 p.m. EST for a landing in Kazakhstan at 10:58 p.m. (9:58 a.m. Nov. 10 Kazakh time). Their return will wrap up 165 days in space since launching from Kazakhstan on May 29 and a mission that covered almost 70 million miles in orbit.

With their landing, Suraev will have spent 334 days in space on two flights, and Wiseman and Gerst will have logged 165 days in space on their first flights.

At the time of undocking, Expedition 42 will formally begin aboard the station under the command of NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore. Along with his crewmates Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos, Wilmore will operate the station as a three-person crew for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members. NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are scheduled to launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Nov. 23, (U.S. time).

NASA Television coverage includes:

Sunday, Nov. 9:

• 3:45 p.m. - Farewell and hatch closure coverage. Includes replay of Nov. 8 change of command ceremony in which Suraev hands over station command to Wilmore; hatch closure at 4:10 p.m.
• 7:15 p.m. - Undocking coverage. Undocking at 7:30 p.m.
• 9:45 p.m. - Deorbit burn and landing coverage. Deorbit burn at 10:05 p.m., with landing at 10:58 p.m.

Monday, Nov. 10

• 1 a.m. - Video File of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities
• Noon - Video File of landing and post-landing activities and post-landing interviews with Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst in Kazakhstan

MEDIA ADVISORY M14-187 NASA to Discuss Science Findings of Oct. 19 Comet Flyby of Mars NASA will host a media teleconference at noon EST on Friday, Nov. 7, to provide initial science observations of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring’s close flyby of Mars and the impact on the Martian atmosphere.

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and a radar instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft provided the first close-up studies of the comet that originated from the distant outer reaches of our solar system.

Briefing participants include:

• Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington
• Nick Schneider, instrument lead for MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Mehdi Benna, instrument scientist for MAVEN’s Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt. Maryland
• Don Gurnett, lead investigator on the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument on Mars Express, University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Alan Delamere, co-investigator for MRO’s HiRISE instrument, Delamere Support Services, Boulder, Colorado

For dial-in information, media representatives should e-mail their name, affiliation and telephone number to Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov by 11 a.m. Friday.