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The Expedition 18 crew members undocked their Soyuz from the
station at 10:55 pm EDT April 7. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz
and begin its descent toward Earth began at 1:24 am April 8. The
landing was moved to a more southerly landing site because of
poor landing conditions at the original
site.
Fincke commanded the Expedition 18 mission, which saw the
station go to full power and begin water supply recycling. He spent
178 days in orbit on this flight and has accumulated a full year in
space during his career.
Launching to the station on October 12, 2008, he also became the
first American to fly to and from the space station twice aboard a
Russian Soyuz. Fincke served almost 188 days as a flight engineer
on the Expedition 9 crew, which launched April 18, 2004, and
returned to Earth on October 23, 2004.
Lonchakov completed his first long-duration spaceflight. He
spent nearly 12 days aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 2001. He
spent nearly 11 days in space in 2002, launching aboard one Soyuz
craft and landing in another while carrying different crews to the
space station and back. With this mission, he has accumulated a
total of more than 200 days in space.
Simonyi, an American, spent 11 days on the station under a
commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency. He is
the only spaceflight participant
to visit the station twice.
The Expedition 18 crew worked with a variety of experiments,
including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth
observation. Many of the experiments are designed to gather
information about the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the
human body, which will help with planning future missions to the
moon and beyond. Other experiments involved practical solutions to
extended mission challenges such as repairing electrical components
and fighting fire in microgravity.
Before undocking, Fincke and Lonchakov bid farewell to the new
station crew, Expedition 19 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight
Engineer Mike Barratt, who launched to the station on a Soyuz March
26. Remaining on the station with Padalka and Barratt as an
Expedition 19 crew member is Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency
astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata launched to the orbiting laboratory
on space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission on March 15.
The Expedition 19 crew will be joined in orbit by Russian
cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De
Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk in May,
inaugurating the station's first six-person crew. It also will be
the first time that crew members from all five International Space
Station partners will be living aboard at the same time.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.29.25)
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