Italian Astronaut Short of Oxygen
A Russian Soyuz TMA-5 capsule bumped down on the Kazakh steppe near Arkalyk at 2:08 a.m. MSK, Monday, bringing astronauts Russian Salizhan Sharipov, American Leroy Chiao and Italian Roberto Vittori safely back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). The landing could have been delayed due to the problems with the spacesuit experienced by Vittori, but the astronaut was lucky to deal with them in no time.
The astronauts launched out preparation for their return to Earth on Sunday night. Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao, who spent nearly 193 days in the space, and Roberto Vittori, who left the Earth only for ten days, went to Soyuz, blocked all access hatches between the spaceship and the ISS and put on Sokol emergency spacesuits, should depressurization occur when the spaceship is leaving the orbit. Exactly depressurization of Soyuz-11 killed Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev in 1971. Then, Russian astronauts were descending to Earth, wearing no spacesuits.
On Monday, however, it was the spacesuit that nearly delayed the landing. When checking his spacesuit, Vittori spotted poor supply of the oxygen. The astronaut had to take off the suit, check it and put it on again. The pressure is raising, oxygen supplied, Vittori reported to Earth. The experts say the oxygen hose could have been pinched, when Vittori was getting into the suit for the first time.
As a result, the spaceship was undocked with only 3-minute delay vs. the original schedule.
Meanwhile, the Expedition 11 crew members – Russian cosmonaut Sergey Krikalev and U.S. flight engineer John Phillips - set off to work in the ISS. Their flight will last for 175 days. They will have two space walks and host two U.S. Shuttles and two Russian cargo spaceships.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 26, 2005
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