May 14, 2013
Expedition 35 Landing
Three members of the International Space Station Expedition 35 crew undocked from the orbiting laboratory and returned safely to Earth Monday, May 13, wrapping up a mission lasting almost five months. The departure marks the beginning of Expedition 36.
Expedition 35 Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan
Space station Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn undocked their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft from the space station at 7:08 p.m. EDT. They landed southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, about 10:31 p.m. (8:31 a.m. May 14, Kazakh time).
Image above: The Soyuz spacecraft bearing Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield (seen at left after landing), Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko (center) and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn (right) landed at 10:31 p.m. EDT in Kazakhstan. Ground-crew teams will land and begin the process of checking the vehicle and getting the crew out.
Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn traveled almost 62 million miles while completing 2,336 orbits of Earth. The trio arrived at the station Dec. 21 and spent 146 days in space, 144 of which were aboard the station.
Pavel Vinogradov of Roscosmos is in command of Expedition 36. He is joined by NASA Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. That trio will work aboard the station until three additional crew members, including NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, arrive May 28.
Image above: The Expedition 35 crew members undock from the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft. Credit: NASA TV.
The undocking marked the end of Expedition 35 and the start of Expedition 36 under the command of Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, who is scheduled to remain on the station with Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy and Alexander Misurkin until September. Hadfield ceremonially handed command of the station over to Vinogradov on Sunday. Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin arrived at the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft in March 2013.
Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin will remain aboard the orbiting complex as a three-person crew until the May 28 launch and docking of Expedition 36 Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg, Fyodor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano.
To follow Twitter updates from NASA's space station astronauts, visit:
http://www.twitter.com/@NASA_Astronauts
For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station
Read more about Expedition 35: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition35/index.html
Read more about Expedition 36: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition36/index.html
Images, Video, Text, Credits: Credit: NASA / NASA TV / Carla Cioffi.
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