Astronauts return to Earth, Roscosmos agrees to research possibilities

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
4 Sep 2023 16:45

Russian, American, and UAE astronauts returned to Earth aboard Crew Dragon 6 after others replaced them on the International Space Station.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, NASA astronaut Warren "Woody" Hoburg, NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen, second from right, and UAE astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi are seen inside a SpaceX capsule onboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, Monday, Sept. 4, 2023. (NASA via AP)

The possibility of conducting research aboard the International Space Station (ISS) until 2030 has been agreed upon, according to Yuri Borisov, chairman of the Russian State Space Corporation (Roscosmos).

This comes as the Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, along with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, and UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, have landed off the coast of the US state of Florida at 05.17 GMT, returning to Earth from the ISS where they have been operating since March 2023.

In the meantime, the new Crew Dragon, replacing the astronauts that returned to Earth, arrived at the ISS on the Crew 7 mission.

Among the new crew was Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.

Still on the ISS are Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin. The two astronauts will be returning to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-23 on September 27 after they are replaced by Russians Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, and American Loral O'Hara via the Soyuz MS-24 on September 15.

Russia lunar mission falters, Luna-25 crashes into moon surface

Despite sanctions, earlier in August, Roscosmos launched the country's first lunar mission in over half a century as an ambitious play in the race to establish a lunar base.

Luna-25 had deviated from its intended orbit and subsequently crashed into the moon's surface, Roscosmos announced.

"Based on the results of preliminary analysis, due to the deviation of the actual impulse parameters from the calculated ones, the Luna-25 spacecraft entered a non-calculated orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," the corporation said.

Preliminary calculations suggested that due to discrepancies between calculated and actual impulse parameters, Luna-25 entered an unanticipated trajectory, resulting in its crash on the moon's surface.

Luna-25, intended to softly land on the moon's south pole, would've marked Russia's first moon mission in 47 years.