SpaceX Dragon Resupply Spacecraft Set To Return To Earth Sunday

The Soyuz spacecraft carrying the next round of crew for the International Space Station has successfully docked with the orbiting laboratory, doubling the number of people on board the station to six.

The Soyuz contacted the station Thursday morning after launching from Kazakhstan Tuesday with NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy aboard, joining Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineers Aki Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko who’ve been residing at the orbital laboratory since July 17. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will remain aboard the station until March 2013. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide will return to Earth Nov. 19. When they undock from the station, it will signal the end of Expedition 33 and the beginning of Expedition 34 with Ford as commander.

Meanwhile, Florida Today reports that the cargo transfer from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is nearly complete, and the Dragon is scheduled for departure from ISS on Sunday. Mission managers unanimously approved the undocking and de-orbit of the Dragon despite a problem with one of its three flight computers. Flight rules only require two for the operation, and while the one computer has been re-set, it is no longer in sync with the other two. Flight engineers may try to re-sync the errant computer, or may just leave it as it is for the return to Earth.

The current schedule calls for  Dragon to un-dock from the ISS Sunday morning grappled by the station's robotic arm. The spacecraft would be released just after 0900 EDT. About six hours later, the spacecraft will perform a de-orbit burn, with splashdown coming in the southern Pacific Ocean.

(NASA Images from file. Top: Expedition 33 crew. Bottom left, SpaceX Dragon, Bottom right, Soyuz)

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.spacex.com