An astronaut and avid photographer is heading again to house for a fourth time on Wednesday. NASA astronaut Don Pettit, first ventured to the Worldwide House Station as a member of Expedition 6 in November 2003 and final returned from a visit to the orbiting outpost on July 1, 2012.
Pettit will depart for the ISS as soon as once more on the Soyuz MS-26 mission on Wednesday, Sept. 11, alongside Soyuz commander Alexey Ovchinin and fellow cosmonaut Ivan Vagner. This would be the fourth flight for Ovchinin and the second for Vagner.
Liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is about for 9:23 p.m. MSK (12:23 p.m. EDT, 1623 UTC).
Throughout prelaunch interviews on Aug. 16, Pettit described being in house as his “house away from house.”
“Every time you go into house, it’s a bit totally different. Issues have modified since your final go to,” Pettit mentioned. “Like a cowboy that desires to be on a horse out within the vary, I’m an astronaut that must be sitting on a rocket and flying in house.”
As soon as on orbit, the house station will transition from Expedition 71 to Expedition 72. That might be made official with the departure of Soyuz MS-25 and its crew: Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Tracy Dyson.
Pettit takes credit score for the design of the mission patch that can characterize Expedition 72. He mentioned he was impressed by the simplicity of the Expedition 1 patch, which led to the forthcoming design.
“I instructed the NASA graphic designer to make an Expedition 1-type patch, make it spherical as an alternative of rectangular, however carry the configuration of the house station updated,” Pettit mentioned. “And he did that, Sean Collins did. And he even put the iROSA photo voltaic panel upgrades on the profile of station of their correct location. So, I just like the simplicity of this patch.”
Expedition 72 begins in September a couple of week after I dock at @Space_Station with my Soyuz crew.
When designing this mission patch, I needed one thing easy and patterned after Expedition 1, which had a entrance profile view of house station’s configuration at the moment.
This… pic.twitter.com/Cu7QWT2Pgt
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) June 5, 2024
Amongst Pettit’s contributions to the astronaut workplace since his choice in 1996, he’s identified for his putting images captured whereas on orbit. One in all his aims might be working with the digicam used within the movies displayed throughout the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.
He mentioned he’s additionally trying ahead to advancing the power to take extra dynamic nighttime photos whereas on orbit.
“I’ve truly talked NASA into flying a variety of new lenses, extremely optimized for nighttime imagery they usually simply arrived on station with NG-21,” Pettit mentioned, referring to the just lately launched Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft. “I’m trying ahead to placing these nighttime optimized lenses to make use of.”
Pettit additionally has the excellence of taking the one millionth photograph on the ISS in 2012. He mentioned his focus when he returns will not be on hitting a quantity, however on capturing “attention-grabbing phenomenon.”
“One phenomenon that has just lately come about that I actually need to see if I can seize is that this atmospheric phenomenon, usually related to the aurora, known as STEVE (Robust Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement ),” Pettit defined. “I’ve regarded again at my Expedition 30/31 photos to see if I inadvertently captured STEVE. To date, I’ve not seen any imagery with STEVE each from my mission and from missions since then, so I’m hoping to actually see if I can seize a big scale view of the STEVE phenomenon.”
One in all my star trails from @Space_Station, blurring golden metropolis lights with the arcing stars of deep house.
Composites like this are constructed from many photos, making a time historical past of earthly and cosmic phenomena that maps our universe as a operate of time. The blue marks of… pic.twitter.com/w1lK39HFuP
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) June 1, 2024
Pettit might be returning to an ISS superior by greater than a decade of growth. He mentioned turned to NASA astronauts Mike Barratt and Tracy Dyson to get their perception as fellow vacationers who’ve additionally been away from the ISS for greater than 10 years.
“I used to be stunned at their reply. They mentioned station is cleaner, extra organized and the software program instruments we’ve got for stowage and for doing stock administration and even our working days by way of the scheduled timeline, these instruments, these software program instruments are a lot extra environment friendly than what we had up to now,” Pettit mentioned.
“They have been impressed with the efficiencies of operation on house station in comparison with the way it was 10, 12 and in some circumstances, 14 years in the past.”
Throughout his time in between missions, Pettit has been busy with duties throughout the astronaut workplace, together with serving as a technical astronaut engaged on NASA’s Gateway program and the Human Touchdown System model of SpaceX’s Starship rocket.
However he mentioned there’s nothing that may supplant the feeling of really touring again to house himself.
“There’s only a sure aspect of once I go into house that simply basically is simply basically on resonance with my soul,” Pettit mentioned. “I really feel extraordinarily lucky and am please and excited that I’ve one other alternative to fly into house.”
When requested if this might be his final spaceflight, Pettit merely replied, “No, I wish to say, that is my subsequent spaceflight.”
