Expedition 31 Returns on This Week @NASA

Expe­di­tion 31 Returns on This Week @NASA



NASA,This,Week



Onboard the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion, Expe­di­tion 31 Com­man­der Oleg Kononenko hand­ed over the reins of the orbit­ing out­post to cos­mo­naut Gen­nady Padal­ka. The start of Padalka­’s tenure as the lead of Expe­di­tion 32 makes him the first three-time com­man­der of the sta­tion. He’s joined on the crew by NASA Flight Engi­neer Joe Aca­ba and Russ­ian Flight Engi­neer Sergei Revin. Kononenko and Flight Engi­neers Don Pet­tit of NASA and Andre Kuipers of the Euro­pean Space Agency returned to Earth in a Soyuz space­craft which made a suc­cess­ful para­chute-assist­ed land­ing on the steppe of Kaza­khstan to cap off a six month stay onboard the ISS. Also, a vis­it to Wal­lops Flight Facil­i­ty by Sen­a­tor Bar­bara Mikul­s­ki to check out Orbital Sci­ences Cor­po­ra­tion’s Antares rock­et and the Mid-Atlantic Region­al Space­port’s new launch pad, The first steps in prepar­ing for NASA’s Explo­ration Flight Test‑1, or EFT‑1 in 2014 are under­way as the Ori­on space­craft is worked on at the Michoud Assem­bly Facil­i­ty in New Orleans, NASA Admin­is­tra­tor Charles Bold­en deliv­ers this year’s John H. Glenn Lec­ture in Space His­to­ry and more!



#Expe­di­tion #Returns #Week #NASA