Day 7: Starting preparations for return

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Roberto continued with his experiments and reported no malfunctions with impact to the performance.

Preparations for the return flight are already taking part of his time. Roberto, as Flight Engineer of the Soyuz spacecraft, and Commander Yuri Gidzenko, have to ensure that the complete payload for the return is packed safely into the very limited space of the return capsule. All in all some 50 kg of payloads will be taken down with the returning Marco Polo crew, 15 kg of experiment results come from the Italian/ESA science programme.

The ‘taxi’ crew will leave the Space Station on Saturday evening, landing in Kazakhstan early on Sunday morning.

Because the ALTEINO neurological radiation experiments have gone smoothly during the last few days, the scientists decided to skip one of the two runs planned for tomorrow, 2 May. This gives Roberto more time to take care of his Soyuz duties.

Naisc ghaolmhara

[ Astronauts ]

ÁBHAR CARTLAINNE: 04 BEAL. 2002

Days 9 & 10: Final preparations for return to Earth

All sights are set on the return to Earth of the Soyuz TM-33 spacecraft during the night of Saturday to Sunday. The Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko and ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori are busy packing all the equipment into the already crowded return module. Three crew members dressed in spacesuits, their contour seats, the life support and emergency equipment, as well as all the experiment data, have to be accommodated into only 3.5 cubic metres.

Léigh an t-alt

[ Astronauts ]

ÁBHAR CARTLAINNE: 02 BEAL. 2002

Day 8: Nelson Mandela calls the Space Station

Time stood still for a moment on board the International Space Station today when the visiting Soyuz ‘taxi’ crew, including South African citizen Mark Shuttleworth, received a call from former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Léigh an t-alt

[ Astronauts ]

ÁBHAR CARTLAINNE: 01 BEAL. 2002