7 Dec 2017 14:24

ISS crews to change

MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - The crew of the Soyuz MS-05 manned spaceship will return to Earth on the afternoon of December 14, a source in the rocket-and-space industry told Interfax.

"The Soyuz MS-05 manned spaceship is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 8:16 a.m. Moscow time on December 14. The crew will reach Earth in less than three hours; they are due to touch down in Kazakhstan at 11:38 a.m. Moscow time," the source said.

The next manned spaceship, the Soyuz MS-07, will travel to the ISS three days later, on the morning of December 17, the source said.

"The departure from the first Gagarin launch pad is planned for 10:21 a.m. Moscow time. The spaceship will arrive at the ISS by the traditional two-day route, and the docking is expected to happen at 11:42 a.m. Moscow time on December 19," the source said.

The members of ISS Expedition 43/44 (Sergei Ryazansky of Roscosmos, Randolph Bresnik of NASA, and Paolo Nespoli of the ESA) will complete their mission on December 14.

The main and backup crews of the Soyuz MS-07 consist of Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle, Norishige Kanai, Sergei Prokopyev, Alexander Gerst, and Jeanette Epps.