Soyuz MS-09 To Return To Earth From ISS On December 20 - Russian Research Institute

Daniyal Sohail Published December 12, 2018 | 09:41 PM

The punctured Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft will return to Earth with the International Space Station (ISS) crew on board on December 20, at 8:06 a.m. Moscow time (5:06 GMT), the Russian Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIImash) said in a statement on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2018) The punctured Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft will return to Earth with the International Space Station (ISS) crew on board on December 20, at 8:06 a.m. Moscow time (5:06 GMT), the Russian Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIImash) said in a statement on Wednesday.

"According to the preliminary estimates of the ballistic-navigational support service of the Mission Control Center (MCC), the undocking of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft from the ISS [is scheduled for] December 20, 4:42 a.m. Moscow time [1:42 GMT]. The landing of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft for December 20, 8:06 a.m. Moscow time [5:06 GMT]," the statement said.

The ISS crew, which includes Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, German astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor, will also return to Earth in the spacecraft.

The Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft docked with the ISS on June 8.

On August 30, the ISS crew detected an insignificant air leak, caused by a microfracture on a wall of the living section of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. The hole was patched on the same day to restore the hermetic integrity of the ISS.

On Tuesday, Prokopyev and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko conducted a spacewalk to inspect the hole in the spacecraft. The cosmonauts opened the screen-vacuum insulation and cut out micrometeorite protection to get to the hole. The pieces of the hull were put into an insulated container. Swipe samples from the hole area and samples of sealant that was used to patch up the fracture were also placed into containers.

Prokopyev and Kononenko did not have time to pick up the containers of the Test and the Endurance experiments left for display on the Poisk research module, but this was not a priority.