by Benson Agoha | Space Science
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| * Major Tim Peak at the International Space Station (ISS) |
Discussions and space travel awareness is set to peak today as the first British Astronaut to head to the International Space Station (ISS) returns to earth after a 6 months say 220 miles above the earth.
Major Tim Peak headed off 6 months ago after a rigorous training session at various NASA locations around the world.
Today, just before he left the station, he tweeted "Time to add some weight". The capsule carrying him undocked about 5am local time. He is expected to arrive about 10am.
Major Tim Peak headed off 6 months ago after a rigorous training session at various NASA locations around the world.
Today, just before he left the station, he tweeted "Time to add some weight". The capsule carrying him undocked about 5am local time. He is expected to arrive about 10am.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the following expected timings (GMT) apply.
| 02:15 GMT (04:15 CEST) | Farewells and hatch closing |
| 05:30 GMT (07:30 CEST) | Undocking |
| 08:00 GMT (10:00 CEST) | Reentry and landing |
05:51 | Undocking command |
| 05:52 | Separation |
| 05:55 | Thruster firing |
| 08:22 | Large deorbit burn for four minutes |
| 08:49 | Module separation 139 km above Earth |
| 09:00 | Parachute opens 10 km above Earth |
| 09:14 | Retrorockets fire an instant before touchdown |
The capsule is expected to land in Russia after the capsule separates further in to three just before it enters earth.
The last bit in which the major and other return crew will be fixed onto a huge parachute that will help slow it down from about 2000 miles/hour to 5 miles/hour.
It will then land like a controlled car crash, according a staff from ground mission control.
Other astronauts coming back to earth with the ESA astronaut are NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Soyuz spacecraft commander Yuri Malenchenko.
Tim Peake spent a total of 186 days in space for his Principia mission on the International Space Station. He was awarded a national honour by the Queen whilst still on his mission.
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Read other stories from the European Space Agency on Tim Peaks journey back to earth:
Shortly after the deorbit burn, Soyuz separates into three parts. The orbital and service modules burn up on re-entry in the denser layers of Earth’s atmosphere. The descent module turns to position its heat shield towards the direction of re-entry, so that it can handle the 1600°C created by the friction with our atmosphere.
Re-entry starts at an altitude of about 120 km, when their cruising speed of 28 800 km/h is reduced dramatically and the crew are pushed back into their seats with a force of 4–5 g. This is equivalent to four to five times their own body weight.
Parachutes reduce the speed further and the astronaut’s custom-fitted seats absorb the shock of landing. At the last moment, retrorockets fire to limit the impact to around 5 km/h.
After landing, the crew deploy a communication antenna for the rescue teams to pinpoint them, but search and rescue teams are often already onsite to retrieve the space voyagers.
Tim is the eighth ESA astronaut to complete a long-duration mission in space. He will be the third astronaut after Alexander Gerst and Andreas Mogensen to fly directly to ESA’s astronaut home base in Cologne, Germany, for checkups and to allow researchers to collect more data on how Tim’s body and mind have adapted to living in space.
(* With contributions from the European Space Agency. All photos credit to Major Tim Peak's Principia blog.)
Re-entry starts at an altitude of about 120 km, when their cruising speed of 28 800 km/h is reduced dramatically and the crew are pushed back into their seats with a force of 4–5 g. This is equivalent to four to five times their own body weight.
Parachutes reduce the speed further and the astronaut’s custom-fitted seats absorb the shock of landing. At the last moment, retrorockets fire to limit the impact to around 5 km/h.
After landing, the crew deploy a communication antenna for the rescue teams to pinpoint them, but search and rescue teams are often already onsite to retrieve the space voyagers.
Tim is the eighth ESA astronaut to complete a long-duration mission in space. He will be the third astronaut after Alexander Gerst and Andreas Mogensen to fly directly to ESA’s astronaut home base in Cologne, Germany, for checkups and to allow researchers to collect more data on how Tim’s body and mind have adapted to living in space.
(* With contributions from the European Space Agency. All photos credit to Major Tim Peak's Principia blog.)
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