Expedition 27 Crew Undocks from Station

ISS - Expedition 27 Mission patch / ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-20 Mission patch.

23 May 2011

Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA Flight Engineer Cady Coleman and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli undocked from the International Space Station at 5:35 p.m. EDT Monday and will return to Earth inside their Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft at 10:26 p.m.

Image above: The Expedition 27 crew conducts a change of comand ceremony. Credit: NASA TV.

At 11:41 a.m. Sunday, Kondratyev conducted a ceremonial change of command with Andrey Borisenko, who now commands Expedition 27 and will command Expedition 28. Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli launched to the station Dec. 15. Expedition 28 will begin officially at the moment of Soyuz undocking.

Image above: Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman conduct a farewell ceremony with Flight Engineer Ron Garan. Credit: NASA TV.

After the undocking, the Soyuz will back away from the station as normal but hold in place about 200 meters away while the station is rotated 130 degrees so space shuttle Endeavour and the space station elements will be in the best position for Nespoli to acquire imagery of the station in its current configuration.

Image above: Attired in their Russian Sokol launch and entry suits, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, Expedition 27 commander; and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, flight engineer, prepare to perform a fit check in their body-contoured Kazbek couches in the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station. Kondratyev, Coleman and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli (out of frame) are scheduled to return to Earth on May 23.

Expedition 27 Undocking, Fantastic View of ISS

 

Remaining on the station are Borisenko, NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev. Two weeks after the Expedition 27 crew lands, Soyuz Commander Sergei Volkov, NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fossum and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 7. They will dock with the station and join its crew on June 9.

Soyuz TMA-20 undocks from the Station

STS-134 Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel and Mike Fincke wrapped up their 8-hour, 7-minute spacewalk at 10:12 a.m EDT Sunday. They topped off ammonia in a cooling loop, lubricated a solar array joint on the port truss and one of the hands on Dextre, one of the station’s Canadian robotic arms, and installed stowage beams near the middle of the main truss.

Image above: Astronaut Andrew Feustel reenters the space station after completing n 8-hour, 7-minute spacewalk at 10-12 a.m. EDT Sunday, May 22, 2011.

The spacewalk was the fifth for Feustel and the seventh for Fincke. It was the 157th for station assembly and maintenance and the 246th by U.S. astronauts.

Read more about STS-134: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Read more about Expedition 28: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition28/index.html

Read more about Expedition 27: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition27/index.html

Images, Video, Text, Credit: NASA / NASA TV.

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