04/19/2021

Soyuz MS-17 Spacecraft Safely Returns back to Earth Expedition 64 Space Crew

Three Optolink's TRS-500 fiber-optic gyroscopes, installed into control system of Descent Module of the latest Soyuz modification, Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft, successfully executed their mission during landing. in Kazakhstan on 17 April 2021, at 04:55​ UTC (09:55 local time, 00:55​ EDT). The landing module safely landed on-target about 147 kilometers southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The crew of the 64th long-term expedition consisting of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins returned to Earth. All descent operations and landing went normally and the crew is feeling well. The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-17 crewed vehicle was launched on October 14, 2020 at 05:45:04 UTC. 3 hours 3 minutes later, at 08:48:47 UTC, it docked routinely to the Rassvet module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station. For the first time in the world, a crewed spacecraft docked to the ISS, after only two orbits around the Earth. Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Kathleen Rubins spent 185 days in space. The crew performed dozens of experiments in various fields of science according to the Russian scientific program (medicine, space biology, biotechnology, physicochemical processes, etc.)