Flies to Earth ISS crew closed the hatches of the spaceship “Soyuz” – RIA Novosti

Korolev (Moscow region), December 11 – RIA Novosti. to return to Earth the crew of Oleg Kononenko (Roscosmos), Chella Lindgren (NASA) and Kimia Yui (JAXA) joined with the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the spacecraft “Soyuz TMA-17M”, closed the hatches and preparing to the undocking, told RIA Novosti spokesman for the Mission Control Center (MCC)

“command on the disconnection will be issued at 12.48 MSK. The physical undocking will take about half a minute, the momentum slip of the vehicle from the station will be issued at 12.52 MSK”, – noted .

During the flight to the “Union” Oleg Kononenko will test the tablet computer. In the future, these plates are supposed to be integrated in the remote control, and while the task of the astronauts is to check technologies and software.

Currently, only supplements tablet computer paper documentation, and on it there are good reasons. As told earlier he Kononenko, electronics have electronics, it needs power, which may not function properly, and this is unacceptable. There are also software failures, so the paper as the main option, will live a very long time. That is why his Japanese counterpart on the crew, also fluent in computer technology, JAXA astronaut Kimia Yui while going to work with a paper flight documentation.

Oleg Kononenko during the station also had a long-term experiment on the remote control to the ISS two robots : one – located in the Central Research Institute of robotic systems in St. Petersburg – and the second, which is located at the Institute of Robotics in Munich. The ultimate goal of the experiment – prepare the technology and the ability to control robots located on another planet. Testing was conducted in the framework of the Russian-German experiment “Kontur-2.”

On board the ISS were Russians Sergei Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko, American astronaut Scott Kelly, and on December 15 it to the aid will arrive Yuri Malenchenko (Roscosmos), Timothy Kopra (NASA) and Timothy Peak (ESA).

Army and transport aircraft of the Central Military District (CVO) has relocated to Kazakhstan to meet the crew of the manned spacecraft “Soyuz TMA-17M.” The search and rescue support landing “Union” involves about 200 troops, 14 helicopters Mi-8 with the special equipment on board, four AN-12 and AN-26 and 15 units of vehicles, including four search and recovery vehicle terrain.