Station Trio Preps for Departure

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Station Trio Preps for Departure as Expedition 40 Nears End

As the Expedition 40 crew members head into their final weekend together aboard the International Space Station, the six astronauts and cosmonauts spent Friday preparing for the arrival of a cargo craft and Wednesday’s departure of three crewmates after nearly six months in space.

Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev got an early start on the day, waking up a half hour before the crew’s usual 2 a.m. EDT reveille to conduct a test of the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft’s motion control system. Soyuz Commander Skvortsov, Artemyev and Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson will undock their Soyuz from the Poisk module on the space-facing side of the station on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 7:02 p.m. for a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan a little less than 3 ½-hours later. These three crew members have been aboard the station since March 27.

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Station Trio Prepares for Departure as Long Term Science Continues

The Expedition 39/40 trio is winding down its stay at the International Space Station. Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov, Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev will complete their mission Wednesday at 7:01 p.m. EST when they undock in their Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft from the Poisk docking compartment.

In between departure preparations on Monday, the homebound crew members and their Expedition 40/41 counterparts worked science and maintenance throughout the International Space Station.

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Science Continues on Orbital Lab While Trio Prepares for Departure

One set of Expedition 40 crew members is working advanced microgravity science while another set is wrapping up its stay in space.

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman started his morning on a pair of fluid physics experiments. He first photographed samples of colloids, or microscopic particles suspended in liquids, for a version of the Binary Colloid Alloy Test experiment subtitled Low Gravity Phase Kinetics-Critical Point (BCAT-KP-1). Results may contribute to more advanced consumer products with unique properties and longer shelf lives.

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