NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy smiles after returning from his third space mission on October 21, 2020 and landing with his crew members Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos at 10:54 p.m. EDT in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Photo credit: NASA Television
After 196 days of living and working in Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station NASA Astronaut Chris Cassidy returned from his third space mission on Wednesday October 21 with cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin from the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The crew left the station at 7:32 p.m. EDT on Wednesday and landed south of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 10:54 p.m. (8:54 a.m. Kazakh time). You will undergo preliminary medical checks at the landing site and then split up to return home. Cassidy will board a NASA plane back to Houston while Vagner and Ivanishin will fly to Star City, Russia.
During that final mission, Cassidy served as the commander of Expedition 63, welcoming SpaceX Demo-2 crew members Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley of NASA – the first astronauts to take off from American soil to the space station in an American spacecraft since space retreat in 2011.
The Soyuz spacecraft with NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Expedition 63 crew members, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner from the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will leave the International Space Station at 9:32 p.m. EDT on October 21, 2020, around after the 196 day mission. Photo credit: NASA Television
Cassidy and Behnken completed four space walks, a total of 23 hours and 37 minutes, to upgrade the station’s batteries. The last spacewalk was the 10th for both astronauts, making them two of only four U.S. astronauts to complete 10 spacewalks. Cassidy has now spent a total of 378 days in space, the fifth highest among US astronauts.
During his stationing he contributed to hundreds of experiments, including a study of the influence of gravity on electrolyte gas evolution, which examined bubbles generated by electrolysis. Gravity is a key factor in the buoyancy of bubbles. Microgravity therefore makes it possible to filter out bubble growth and investigate its effect in processes. Using this method to better understand how blisters grow could improve devices like drug delivery through small, bandage-like skin patches.
Cassidy also worked with Astrobee, cube-shaped, free-flying robots that might one day assist astronauts with routine tasks, and conducted research for the Onco-Selectors experiment, which uses weightlessness to identify targeted cancer therapies.
When Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner left the space station, Expedition 64 officially began at the station, with Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov serving as station commander and Kate Rubins of NASA and Roscosmos’ Sergey Kud-Sverchkov serving as flight engineers.
In November, the Expedition 64 crew is due to greet NASA SpaceX Crew-1 – NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Agency. Crew-1 will be the first long-term mission to fly under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, marking the return of America’s ability to regularly launch astronauts from US soil.
For nearly 20 years, the International Space Station has been continuously inhabited by astronauts who test technology, conduct research, and develop the skills necessary to explore further from Earth, including the moon and the moon Mars. As a global endeavor, 241 people from 19 countries visited the unique microgravity destination, where more than 3,000 scientific and educational studies have been conducted by researchers from 108 countries and territories.
