Soyuz MS-20 prepares to undock from the International Space Station

Date:
Sun, 19 Dec 2021 23:34:25 +0000

Description:
Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano are preparing The post Soyuz MS-20 prepares to undock from the International Space Station appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano are preparing to conclude their short, 12-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Soyuz MS-20 which will carry the trio home is scheduled to undock from the Stations Poisk module on December 19 at 23:50 UTC. The crew will then land in Kazakhstan on December
20 at 03:13 UTC.



Soyuz MS-20

The crew of Soyuz MS-20 launched on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Site 31/6 at
the Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 8. After six hours of navigating to the ISS, the spacecraft docked to the Poisk module on the Russian Segment.

Maezawa booked this flight through the Virginia-based space tourism company Space Adventures. The company has facilitated tourist flights for individuals including Dennis Tito, Richard Garriot, and Guy Lalibert.

Hirano is serving as Maezawas assistant for the mission, who paid for his
seat on Soyuz. Both men are the first Japanese space tourists.

MS-20 is the third mission for Misurkin, who has flown on Soyuz TMA-08M and Soyuz MS-06. This is the second mission he has commanded. The three-person Soyuz MS-20 crew (front row) joins the seven-member Exp 66 crew for a group portrait. More details https://t.co/9uefcgeGsS pic.twitter.com/k6ubKkYbaw

International Space Station (@Space_Station) December 14, 2021



During his time on the Station, videos of Maezawa were filmed inside the Russian segment and posted on the internet. He also worked on experiments for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Both Maezawa and Hirano used the Russian Luch multifunctional relay system to communicate with the ground, instead of the American TDRS relay system. See Also Soyuz MS-20 Mission L2 Russian Section L2 ISS Section Click here to Join L2

The crew of Soyuz MS-20 is not officially part of ISS Expedition 66, which currently consists of astronauts and cosmonauts brought up by SpaceX Crew-3, Soyuz MS-18, and Soyuz MS-19.

Undocking

Prior to spacecraft departure, Misurkin, Maezawa, and Hirano will enter the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft and wave goodbye to the Expedition 66 crew. Hatch closure between the spacecraft and the Poisk module is scheduled to occur between 19:20 and 19:30 UTC. The Soyuz crew will then don their Sokol launch and entry suits, which will remain on until after landing.

The Poisk module also known as the Mini-Research Module-2 (MRM-2) has been docked to the ISS since arriving in 2009 on Progress M-MIM2. The module is nearly identical to the Pirs module, which was removed and burned up earlier this year to make room for the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module. Poisk is also used as the airlock for the Russian segment of the ISS.

To begin the undocking sequence, Misurkin will issue a command to the spacecraft to undock at 23:49 UTC, which will drive the hooks on the docking ring to open. Around a minute later, springs will push the spacecraft away from the ISS at a rate of 0.12 m/s. The Soyuz MS-20 patch. Credit: Roscosmos

The attitude control on the Soyuz spacecraft cannot be used until ten seconds after undocking due to close proximity with the ISS. The Kurs-NA docking system will be used during the undocking.

Unlike most standard Soyuz spacecraft, the spacecraft can be flown by one pilot, which in this case is commander Misurkin. This is similar to the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, which was used to transport an actress and director for a Russian film on the ISS called The Challenge earlier this year.

Around three minutes after undocking from the Poisk module, the first
maneuver called Separation Burn-1 will occur. This burn will last for a total of eight seconds and will cause a velocity change on the Soyuz spacecraft of around 0.53 m/s.

Separation Burn-2 will follow next and will last for 15 seconds and will
cause another velocity change of around 1.53 m/s. Following this, the spacecraft will depart the Keep Out Sphere around the ISS. Soyuz MS-20 will then begin a period of free flight.

Deorbit and landing

At 02:18 UTC on December 20, the Soyuz spacecraft will fire its main engine
in the retrograde orientation for the deorbit burn, which will last around four minutes. This will lower the vehicles perigee, putting it on a sub-orbital trajectory and committing the crew to reentry and landing.

Explosive bolts will fire at 02:47 UTC, separating both the Orbital Module
and the Service/Propulsion Module from the Descent Module, where the crew is located. At this point, the Soyuz will be located over Egypt as it travels northeast.

For this mission, the Soyuz module has both the flag of Japan as well as Maezawas MZ logo in addition to the regular Russian decals.

The Descent Module will then enter the plasma regime portion of atmospheric reentry at 02:50 UTC as it travels over the Caspian Sea. During this time, there will be a communications blackout between the ground and the
spacecraft.

Both the Orbital Module and the Service Module will burn up during reentry.



At 10 km altitude, the parachute cover will be released from the Descent Module. After two pilot parachutes and a drogue parachute are used, the
signal to release the main parachute will occur at 02:58 UTC.

When the Descent Module reaches 5 km altitude, the heat shield will jettison and the spacecraft will vent any leftover propellants. The seats on the spacecraft then rise up as the Soyuz nears the ground to cushion the impact
of the landing for the crew.

A second before landing, two sets of three engines on the bottom of the Descent Module will fire, slowing down the rate of descent. Blue Origins New Shepard capsule does a similar practice prior to landing.

Soyuz MS-20 is scheduled to touchdown on the Kazakh steppe at 03:13 UTC. The targeted landing site is located 148 km southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, located in central Kazakhstan.

Russian military and Roscosmos ground assets were relocated to support the landing of Soyuz MS-20. These include search and rescue teams from the
Central Military District in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia.

This flight is the first of two planned spaceflights for Maezawa, who also
has a lunar flyby flight booked on SpaceXs Starship. The mission known as dearMoon will carry around a dozen artists around the Moon with Maezawa. The mission is scheduled to occur no earlier than 2023, following numerous development and test flights of Starship.

The next Soyuz mission will be Soyuz MS-21, which is scheduled to launch from Baikonur in March of 2022. The mission will have an all-Russian crew, with cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov representing Roscosmos.

Soyuz MS-19 is scheduled to return to earth no earlier than March 28, 2022, with Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

(Featured image: Soyuz MS-20 approaches the zenith port on the Poisk module on December 8. Credit: NASA).

The post Soyuz MS-20 prepares to undock from the International Space Station appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/12/soyuz-ms-20-undocking/


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