Last week we saw the return of three of the crew from the International Space Station (ISS) after 188 days in space. The Russian Soyuz spacecraft successfully landed in Kazakhstan with the Expedition 39 crew, including Commander Koichi
Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Soyuz Commander
Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, and Flight
Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA. Mastracchio was busy during this last mission with three spacewalks to repair both a cooling pump and a computer backup.
NASA stated the next crew is not expected to launch to the ISS until May 28th.
SpaceX's Dragon was also released earlier today for its return to the Pacific Ocean (see picture above). The Dragon first arrived on April 20th with about 2.5 tons of crew supplies, cargo, and science gear. This is SpaceX's third successful delivery to the ISS. Hopefully, sooner rather than later we can get crew members onto the ISS with the help of SpaceX and other U.S. parties.
Image Credit:
NASA
