On June 07, 2011 at 20:12 UTC (on June 08 at 00:12 Moscow time) the Russian "Soyuz TMA-02M” spacecraft was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome.
The spacecraft is piloted by 3 cosmonauts: Commander, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov (center); flight-engineer, American astronaut Michael Fossum (left); flight-engineer, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa (right).(photo by the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre)
The space vehicle is to dock with the International Space Station on June 09.
On June 01, 2011 the "Endeavour” American Space Shuttle (STS-134) landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.
photo NASA
The shuttle’s touchdown was at 06:34:51 UTC. The full stop was at 06:35:36 UTC.
Mark Kelly, Gregory Johnson, Andrew Feustel, Edward Michael Fincke, Gregory Chamitoff, Roberto Vittori (Italy) returned to Earth.
Endeavour delivered the station's premier science experiment, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector, and a pallet of spare parts intended to tide
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On May 27, 2011 American astronauts of the STS-134 crew Gregory Chamitoff and Michael Fincke performed a seven-hour, 24-minute spacewalk.
photo NASA
This was the final spacewalk conducted by space shuttle astronauts. It also was the last of the four spacewalks for the STS-134 mission. The space walkers placed the shuttle's 50-foot inspection boom on the station's truss backbone to extend the reach of the lab's robot arm.
It was the 248th spacewalk U.S. astronauts have conducted. It was Fincke's ninth spacewalk. It was Chamitoff's second spac
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On May 25, 2011 American astronauts of the STS-134 crew Andrew Feustel and Michael Fincke performed a six-hour, 54-minute spacewalk.
STS-134 Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel and Michael Fincke participate in the mission's third spacewalk as construction and maintenance continue on the ISS. Photo NASA.
The space walkers completed all planned tasks: installing cables to increase redundancy for the power system on the Russian segment of the station; completing the external wireless antenna system and installing a power and data grapple fixture to the "Zarya” module. The fixture will allow the station's robotic arm to "walk" to the Russian segment, e
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On May 24, 2011 at 02:27 UTC the Russian "Soyuz TMA-20” landing capsule landed safely in 147 kilometers to East from the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Having spent in space 159 days, 7 hours and 16 minutes, Russian cosmonaut Dmitriy Kondratjev, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli and American astronaut Catherine Coleman returned to Earth.
From left to right: Catherine Coleman, Dmitriy Kondratjev, Paolo Nespoli (photo NASA).
The crew is in good condition after the landing. The search for the reentry capsule was conducted by 17 aircraft (three planes and fourteen Mi-8
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On May 23, 2011 at 21:35 UTC (on May 24 at 01:35 Moscow time) the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft undocked from the ISS.
The Soyuz Commander, Russian cosmonaut Dmitriy Kondratjev, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli and American astronaut Catherine Coleman were aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 to return to Earth.
Russian cosmonaut Kondratjev, the Soyuz commander, was at the controls of the spacecraft. He backed the Soyuz TMA-20 away from the station and halted it about 600 feet away. From there, Nespoli took still photographs and video of the complex with space shuttle Endeavour attached. The station slowly rotated 130 degrees to provide Nespoli with the best lighting and views during his photo opportunity.
On May 22, 2011 American astronauts of the STS-134 crew Andrew Feustel and Michael Fincke performed a spacewalk.
The astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavour completed the sixth-longest spacewalk in history on Sunday after needing extra time to finish maintenance work on the International Space Station.
The EVA lasted 8 hours and 7 minutes.
photo NASA.
The spacewalkers worked on the station's cooling system and lubricating elements of the solar array. During the lubrication work, a bolt and washer from a protect
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On May 20, 2011 American astronauts of the STS-134 crew Andrew Feustel and Gregory Chamitoff performed a spacewalk.
The astronauts retrieved and replaced materials exposure experiment packages, conditioned coolant lines in preparation for flowing ammonia during Sunday's EVA and installed two wireless communications antennas. But a malfunctioning carbon dioxide sensor in Chamitoff's spacesuit prompted an early end to the spacewalk before the crew could connect and route a large bundle of wiring for those new antennas. The EVA lasted 6 hours and 19 minutes.
On May 18, 2011 at 10:14 UTC the "Endeavour” American Space Shuttle docked to the International Space Station. As usual with shuttle-station linkups, it took most of an orbit to lock the two spacecraft together and complete leak checks before hatches were opened.
The STS-134 crew of Mark Kelly, Gregory Johnson, Andrew Feustel, Edward Michael Fincke, Gregory Chamitoff and Roberto Vittori, was welcomed aboard by Expedition 27 commander Dmitry Kondratyev and his five crewmates, Andrey Borisenko, Aleksandr Samokutyaev, Ronald Garan, Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli.