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Soyuz to land with three space station residents tonight BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 24, 2010 
Outgoing Expedition 24 commander Alexander Skvortsov, flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson bid their space station colleagues farewell for the second time Friday, returned to their Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft and prepared for a day-late undocking and landing in Kazakhstan early Saturday to close out a six-month stay in space.
If all goes well, Skvortsov will oversee a four-minute 21-second de-orbit rocket firing starting at 12:31:17 a.m. Saturday, slowing the ship by about 258 mph and putting it on a trajectory for a landing near Arkalyk in northeastern Kazakhstan around 1:21:53 a.m. (11:21:53 a.m. local time). Here is an updated timeline of major events in the Soyuz TMA-18 re-entry (in EDT and mission elapsed time; best viewed with fixed-width font): DATE/EDT......DDD...HH...MM...SS...EVENT 9/24 09:00:00 PM...175...20...55...26...US to Russian attitude control handover 09:10:54 PM...175...21...06...20...Orbital sunset 09:25:00 PM...175...21...20...26...ISS maneuvers to undocking attitude 09:25:00 PM...175...21...20...26...Sunrise at landing site 09:39:50 PM...175...21...35...16...Orbital sunrise 09:55:02 PM...175...21...50...28...Daily Orbit 15 Russian ground station AOS 09:58:00 PM...175...21...53...26...ISS to free drift 09:59:00 PM...175...21...54...26...Undocking command 10:02:00 PM...175...21...57...26...Physical separation 10:05:00 PM...175...22...00...26...Soyuz separation burn #1 (dV: 1.4 mph) 10:07:00 PM...175...22...02...26...ISS maneuver to duty attitude 10:14:46 PM...175...22...10...12...Daily Orbit 15 Russian ground station LOS 10:42:35 PM...175...22...38...01...Orbital sunset 11:00:00 PM...175...22...55...26...Russian to US attitude control handover 9/25 12:31:17 AM...176...00...26...43...Soyuz deorbit burn start (dV: 257.7 mph) 12:35:38 AM...176...00...31...04...Deorbit burn complete 12:51:07 AM...176...00...46...33...Terminator rise 12:56:10 AM...176...00...51...36...Module separation (alt 87 miles) 12:59:12 AM...176...00...54...38...Atmospheric entry (alt 62.7 miles) 01:00:54 AM...176...00...56...20...Entry guidance start (alt 50 miles) 01:05:46 AM...176...01...01...12...Maximum G-load (alt 21.4 miles) 01:07:42 AM...176...01...03...08...Command to open parachute (alt 6.6 miles) 01:21:53 AM...176...01...17...19...Landing (Daily Orbit 1, 49°56' N, 66°57' E) 09:23:00 AM...176...09...18...26...Sunset at Landing Site Touchdown will mark the end of a 176-day stay in space for Skvortsov, Kornienko and Caldwell Dyson since blastoff last April 2 aboard the same Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft. The station's three remaining crew members -- Expedition 25 commander Douglas Wheelock, Shannon Walker and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin -- will have the outpost to themselves for the next two weeks until another Soyuz carrying three fresh crewmates arrives Oct. 9. Skvortsov and his crewmates had hoped to undock Thursday evening for a landing in Kazakhstan early Friday U.S. time. But they ran into problems when closing the hatches between the Soyuz spacecraft and its docking port atop the Poisk module. As reported early Friday, telemetry indicated the hatch was closed, but an expected signal showing it was firmly locked was absent. The Soyuz hatch was re-opened and inspected and then resealed as was a cover on the station side of the interface. But again, flight controllers did not see a locked indication. With air pressure holding steady, the crew carried out an extended leak check to verify the integrity of the seals. Flight controllers then attempted to drive open hooks in the Poisk side of the docking interface that help hold visiting spacecraft in place. The hooks failed to retract. Skvortsov attempted to open the hooks by sending commands from inside the Soyuz but again, the hooks refused to budge. With time running out, Russian flight controllers were forced to delay undocking pending additional troubleshooting. They eventually decided to delay the departure a full day. Inspecting the Poisk side of the hatch, station flight engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin found a small, apparently damaged seven-toothed sprocket floating in the docking mechanism when he removed a protective cover for an inspection. The dislodged sprocket may have prevented the hatch lock sensor from working properly. To work around the problem, Yurchikhin installed electrical jumpers that sent the proper signals to the docking system indicating a firmly closed hatch. The hooks then retracted normally. The jumper cables will remain in place until the arrival of the next set of crew members on Oct. 9. It is not yet clear whether the mechanism will be repaired or whether permanent jumpers will be installed.
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VIDEO:
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