The 3 astronauts of the continental space station plan to return in mid-April, riding our own spaceship Shenzhou XIII, back to the mainland's Dongfeng landing field, the Dongfeng landing field has performed a return search mission, there is sufficient experience in coping, and then we will wait for the good news, looking forward to the smooth return of the 3 astronauts!
According to the original plan on the morning of the 18th of this month, Russia will launch the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft, which will put three Russian astronauts into the International Space Station, these three astronauts are Oleg Artemyev, Dennis Matviev and Sergei Korsakov, staying on the International Space Station, taking over the two Russian astronauts who are about to return to perform the orbital mission.
On the 30th of this month, the Soyuz MS-19 planned to return from the International Space Station, and the spacecraft was accompanied by three astronauts, Anton Skaplerov, Peter Dubrov, and an American astronaut, Mark Van der Heyer.
When it comes to American astronaut Mark Van der Hey, luck is indeed not good, because with the change of international relations, it is not certain whether he will be able to return as planned this time.
You know, according to the original plan, he should have returned to Earth as early as last October, so why hasn't he returned until now?
Mark van der Hey
According to media reports, by March 30, Mark van der Hey will work in Earth orbit for 355 consecutive days, breaking the record for NASA astronauts. And this record was not intended by him.
Mark Van der Hey entered the International Space Station on April 9 last year aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-18, and according to the original plan, he only used the Islamic Space Station to carry out missions for up to 6 months.
To say more, the permanent residence time of continental astronauts on the continental space station is also 6 months, which is because the space environment lacks gravity, and human muscles and bones exist to fight gravity, in a gravity-free environment, human muscles will atrophy, bone mass will be lost, and even adversely affect cardiovascular disease.
Although astronauts can slow down physical degradation by exercising, the longer they stay in Orbit on Earth, the greater the impact on the human body. So under normal circumstances, astronauts will perform 6 months of missions on the space station, and then return to Earth to adjust their bodies for a period of time before continuing to enter the International Space Station.
Mark van der Hey originally planned to return to Earth after a mission of up to 6 months. But during this time, Russia made a space movie in which actress Yulia Beleheld and director Lim Shipenko arrived at the International Space Station on the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, stayed on the International Space Station for 12 days, and then returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft.
Generally speaking, which spaceship he took into space, he took which spacecraft to return to Earth, because the Soyuz MS-18 was occupied by two seats, resulting in Mark Van der Heyer unable to return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-18, and had to stay on the International Space Station to work overtime.
Fortunately, the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft still has two empty seats, one of which is given to Mark van der Hey, who was originally scheduled to return on the 30th of this month in the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, but now the international situation has changed, making this matter full of uncertainty.
Can the United States take back its own astronauts?
If Mark van der Hey can't return home on the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, will the United States be able to pick up its own astronauts?
First of all, from the perspective of the spacecraft, if this matter was two years earlier, the United States really could not pick up its own astronauts from the International Space Station. Because since the U.S. space shuttle was fully retired in 2011, the United States has not had a manned spacecraft for a long time to transport astronauts back to the International Space Station and pick them up from the International Space Station, and can only rent seats on Russian spacecraft, but the ticket price of spacecraft seats has been rising, and the United States has spent about $4 billion over the years to buy ferry tickets.
In order to get rid of its dependence on Russian spacecraft and avoid getting stuck in the neck, the United States funded Boeing and SpaceX to develop manned spacecraft in 2014.
It was not until 2020 that SpaceX sent two astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time, and picked up two astronauts from the space station in the same year, and now the United States has a suitable spacecraft that can bring back astronauts on the International Space Station.
Secondly, from the seat of the spacecraft, although the United States has a spacecraft that is staying on the International Space Station, it can bring astronauts back to the ground at any time. But the spacecraft had just sent three American astronauts, Raja Charry, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and a European astronaut, onto the International Space Station three months earlier.
This means that the spacecraft is fully staffed, and the 4 astronauts will return to the ship after completing their mission, leaving no extra space for Mark van der Hey.
What about the United States firing another spacecraft to pick him up?
In fact, it is not impossible, but the cost is a bit high, so the best plan is still to return home in the Soyuz spacecraft.
It should also be noted that the orbital position of the International Space Station is controlled by Russia, and if Russia does not cooperate, the docking of the US spacecraft will also become a problem.
It is not known whether the current situation will affect the International Space Station and the astronauts on the International Space Station.