Last week, the Russian vehicle Soyuz made a trip up to the International Space Station with three new astronauts on board, ready to start their ~6 month tour on Station.
With the addition of the three new astronauts, there were a total of 9 on board, along with the Sochi Winter Olympics Olympic Torch. The torch is not the first of its kind to make an appearance in great beyond. No, no. An Olympic torch from 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA took a quick trip to space on NASA's shuttle.
But this torch was the first to leave shelter in space. The torch was brought outside Station on a Russian spacewalk on Saturday morning (local time), making this Olympic torch the first to ever be exposed to the vacuum of space.
Last night the Soyuz undocked from Station with Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin (Russia), and astronauts Karen Nyberg (USA/NASA) and Luca Parmitano (Italy/ESA) and landed in Kazakhstan last night (Nov 10, local time, but morning of Nov 11 in Kazakhstan).
Luckily I got home from dinner with Husband's parents just as the replay was starting on NASATV.
I watched everything:
- The astronauts on board Station saying their goodbyes
- Closing the hatch
- Undocking from Station (with a pretty amazing view of Station from Soyuz)
- Re-entry in to the Earth's atmosphere
- Parachuting to a soft landing on Earth
- Unloading the astronauts from Soyuz into the recliners.
How did I get so lucky?
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