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NASA
The homecoming for Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin (left to right) was pushed back to Friday because of bad weather. They are returning to Earth after a stay on the International Space Station.
By Miriam Kramer
Space.com
An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are stuck in space for one more day after freezing rain and fog on Earth prevented them from landing in Central Asia on Thursday, NASA officials say.
The foul weather, which one Russian space agency official described simply as "horrible," means NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin had to delay their return from the International Space Station for at least 24 hours. The three men have been living in space for 141 days and were preparing to enter their Soyuz spacecraft for a landing on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan tonight.
"We are waving off landing," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live mission commentary. "No Soyuz landing tonight."
The rain and fog in Kazakhstan is not a threat to the Soyuz spacecraft and crew, Navias said. But the recovery helicopters essential for retrieving the astronauts after landing would not be able to make it to their staging grounds for the landing because of bad weather conditions. [See photos of the Expedition 34 space station mission]
"I talked to our colleagues in Kazakhstan last night and the weather is really horrible, and a decision was made not to risk, and we suggest that we delay the landing." chief Russian flight director Vlademir Solovyev said through a translator on NASA TV.
Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin were originally scheduled to undock their Russian-built Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft at the International Space Station Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EDT, with an expected landing of 11:56 p.m. EDT.
Landing is now scheduled to occur on Friday at 11:06 p.m. EDT, NASA officials said.
This is not the first time weather has affected a Soyuz spacecraft's landing. In 2009, another Soyuz craft had its return to Earth delayed by a day because snowy conditions on the ground made the landing potentially unsafe.
Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin have spent nearly five months on board the station. The mission is Ford's second spaceflight and the first trip to space for Novitskiy and Tarelkin.
When Ford and his two crewmates depart the station, three other spaceflyers — Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian Roman Romanenko and American Tom Marshburn — will remain aboard orbiting lab to await a new set of crew members.
That new crew will launch on March 28 to ferry cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy to the space station.
NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts between the Earth's surface and orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. Officials with the space agency hope to instead depend on privately built unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Leave a Comment:
Shuttle crew??????
I was just about to comment that it's weird hearing "shuttle crew".
Either it is an old habit or something that the editor should have caught and corrected.
The Soyuz spacecraft is used to "shuttle" the crews to the ISS and back, henceforth, "the shuttle crew".
If it's not a mistake, then I assume they are the last crew to have reached the ISS by Space Shuttle. Now they're coming home.
Nope. Last shuttle flew in the summer of 2011. That would have made the current crew's tenure on the space station 20 months or longer. No one stays up there that long.
Reporters on this beat should be a little more switched on. Shuttle indeed!
The reporter got it right, but the online editor messed up.
and the media claims they are smarter and better educated than the rest of us - they don't know jack about aviation and space and prove that every time they write and article or headline one.
The common terminology for this would be "station crew." No one who is familiar with the program would refer to this group as a "shuttle crew."
I was gonna say, I saw the picture of the station crew but where is the shuttle crew?
Interesting headline given that the shuttle program was shut down in 2011 and that these astronauts are living aboard the space station.
Both points above, well made.
Funny, as I just retired in '11 from the Shuttle program after 28 yrs with the prime contractor at NASA, and that erroneous title with "shuttle crew" still managed to slipped right by me! LOL!!
Maybe it reeeeealy was time for me to retire!! :)
It's a Soyuz - maybe they meant "shuttlecock". LOL!
"'Horrible' weather delays shuttle crew's return"
The "shuttle crew" is going to be delayed longer than that... all of the shuttles are in museums!
Meh. With the NBC proofreaders, I'm surprised they didn't say that it was an Apollo mission.
My thoughts as well. "Shuttle Crew" Normal MSNBC research. Copy and paste some stuff from an old story and call it new.
The headline was written that way to make people like us read the article!!
Better to be safe than sorry with the crew. I'm sure they had to twist the crew's arms to get them to stay at least one more day!!
I bet it was the space shuttle Enterprise. LOL
You mean... There isn't a secret shuttle program still flying shuttles? Dang... Thought I found a truly interesting story. Shuttle? Soyuz? They all start with "S" and have a "u" in them. Understandable mistake.
Not really...
They are getting picked up by Bruce Willis' shuttle on their way to go take out the next asteroid headed our way.
Umm the article name says "horrible weather delays shuttle crews return" but then inside the article it mentions that the shuttle program was retired in 2011. So how could they be a shuttle crew? Does anyone read this stuff and check for basic consistency?
Not to be too picky, but didn't the republicons have the shuttle put down?
Yes.. for another manned space program which obama nixed. Just google it on your obama phone and yo will see the truth.
Ummm....Orion is still being built, though the Aries I was cancelled. I think I read the Orion is scheduled for a test flight in a year or two.
Shuttle return? Obama nixed our manned space program. We are now passengers for the Russian space program. That sure is magnanimous for Russia isn't it? We are so broke we have to cancel White House tours and release criminals on to the street with out trial. We cannot afford a manned space program... of course the golf games and vacations will continue.
you do realize you are an a s s hole!
You do realize the G W Bush canceled the shuttle program in 2004. It was supposed to be retired in 2010, but was extended until 2011. But of course, you wouldn't know that because you RWNJs like to rewrite and warp history for your personal benefit.
I did not realize you could be a @$$hole for pointing out the truth.
Editing is a thing of the past.....type it and publish.....the networks care not for content, just speed
Bush ended the shuttle program without funding its replacement, so that when Obama became president, he was once again, handed the last administration's unpaid bill, but realized there was no money to pay for it, so, the replacement program was put on temporary hold to give private enterprise a chance to do what the gov't could no longer do...and, after all, what can be more republican/conservative than that?
navy -
Shuttle was canceled by Bush, with last flight set for 2010. Obama revived/extended the shuttle program for one year - four more flights - to finish the ISS, including a multibillion dollar part that was already built but that Bush's plan was going to abandon on the ground! Meanwhile, the Orion 6-man space capsule program is alive and well, with the first test flight set for September 2014.
Typing in this comment took longer than looking up and verifying the above info. You should try it sometime.
Is nice.
Shuttle?
As everyone else has pointed out, it should have read "Station Crew" instead of Shuttle Crew.
Old habits die hard.