The six astronauts aboard the Worldwide Space Station will love a lengthy Labor Day weekend the final extended break for 3 of these before they mind to Earth on Sept. 15.
The area station is going to do a little of routine maintenance and housekeeping focus on Saturday (Sept. 3), NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries stated. But apart from that, the astronauts will are able to place their ft up for any spell, or catch on some science work if necessary.
"If they are aching to behave they haven't had time for you to do, they are able to set off and do this experiment," Humphries told SPACE.com. "They virtually manage that by themselves whether they have nowadays off." [ Photos: Building the Worldwide Space Station ]
Saying goodbye towards the station
Three astronauts American Ron Garan and Russians Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev are slated to depart the area station on Sept. 15. The 3 slow days might be especially sweet on their behalf, giving the spaceflyers an opportunity to leave behind the revolving about lab.
"Ron and the co-workers are likely to obtain a three-day weekend to savor finding yourself in space one further time, before they are doing the ultimate formulations and clean up in the future home," Humphries stated.
Garan, Borisenko and Samokutyaev showed up in the station on April 6. These were initially slated to depart on Sept. 8, but last week's crash of Russia's unmanned Progress 44 cargo ship postponed their departure.
The Progress was condemned by an issue with its Soyuz rocket, that is much like the rocket the Russians use to produce deck hands towards the space station. No astronauts will launch on the Soyuz before the problem is recognized and glued, NASA authorities have stated.
Russian engineers are earning progress within their analysis. They have tracked the origin from the failure to some malfunction within the gas generator within the Soyuz s third-stage engine, Russian authorities introduced the 2009 week.
An unmanned space station
The station's other three astronauts American Mike Fossum, Russian Sergei Volkov and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa are scheduled in the future home in mid-November.
Following the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in This summer, the Soyuz is the only method to take astronauts to orbit. Whether it's not back ready to go by mid-November, the area station might be unmanned the very first time in additional than ten years.
And that is area of the reason NASA made the decision to obstruct the departure of Garan, Borisenko and Samokutyaev.
Keeping them around for one additional week allows the crew to obtain more science work done, that could be invaluable when the station would go to a skeleton crew of three or perhaps is unmanned altogether for any spell, NASA authorities have stated.
The area station could survive all right with no crew for some time, authorities have stated. Remotes on the floor can move it taken care of of potentially harmful space debris, and it is propellant could be capped up by robot spacecraft.
However, getting no crew aboard means any issues that appear aboard the station may likely not get fixed, making flying a far more dangerous proposition. And getting anything under a complete crew of six astronauts would reduce the scientific research that you can do about the revolving about lab.
You are able to follow SPACE.com senior author Mike Wall on Twitter:@michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for that latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter@Spacedotcomas well as onFacebook.
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