09/30/2022

Soyuz MS-21 “S.P.Korolev” Spacecraft Safely Returns back to Earth Expedition 67 Space Crew to complete 195 day mission

Three Optolink's TRS-500 fiber-optic gyroscopes, installed into control system of Descent Module of the latest Soyuz modification, Soyuz MS-21 “S.P.Korolev”   spacecraft, successfully executed their mission during landing. The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft, which launched three Russian cosmonauts,  Expedition 67 commander Oleg Artemyev, Flight Engineers  Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov , to the International Space Station on March 18 of this year, touched down in the Kazakh steppe, on September  29, 2022, at 10:57 UTC (15:57 local time, 06:57 EDT). The landing module safely landed on-target about 147 kilometers southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, in the semi-arid steppe where most Soyuz spacecraft missions have concluded. The MS-21 spacecraft, S.P. Korolev, undocked from Prichal’s nadir port where it has remained for the last six months. This spacecraft was the first to dock with Prichal after it became operational earlier this year and was also the first to undock from the ball-shaped module mounted at the nadir docking port of the Nauka module.  During the MS-21 crew’s 195-day stay in orbit, the cosmonauts conducted spacewalks to set up the European Robotic Arm (ERA) and conduct other tasks. Oleg Artemyev performed five spacewalks—four with Denis Matveev and one with ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. Sergey Korsakov was the intravehicular crew member who assisted the spacewalking cosmonauts from inside the Station. Oleg Artemyev, completing his third flight, spent a total of 560 days in orbit at the end of MS-21’s mission