Fifteen aircraft to ensure safe landing for International Space Station crew

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fifteen aircraft and six rescue vehicles will be deployed to ensure the safe recovery of the Soyuz TMA-07M landing capsule when it brings back to Earth three members of the International Space Station (ISS) crew early on Tuesday, May 24 the Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia said, according to RIA Novosti.

The spacecraft is expected to land in a designated area in Kazakhstan at around 06.31 Moscow time (02:31 GMT).

The aircraft include three planes and 12 Mi-8 helicopters, Rosaviatsia said in a statement on Monday.

The Soyuz TMA-07M will bring back to Earth ISS crew members Chris Hadfield of Canada, Roman Romanenko of Russia and Thomas Marshburn of the United States.

The ISS’s orbit was raised by about 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) to 413.8 kilometers (257 miles) on May 8 to create the best conditions for the undocking of the Soyuz TMA-07M from the orbital station.

After the departure of Soyuz TMA-07M, the ISS will temporarily host a three-member crew: Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy.

The Soyuz TMA-09M, to be launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on May 29, will take new crew members to the station: Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia, Karen Nyberg of the United States and Luca Parmitano of Italy.