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December 20th, 2021
Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Soyuz MS-20 crewed spacecraft descent vehicle landed December 20 at the designated point in Kazakhstan. The “tourist’ crew” of Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano are back on terra firma – all in good health.
The space travelers stayed 11 days onboard the International Space Station.
Roscosmos sent the two space tourists — Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano — from launchpad Vostok of Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 8.
Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Post-flight rehabilitation
In a statement from Roscosmos, the just-returned space crew will enter a program of post-flight scientific experiments and rehabilitation. Misurkin, Maezawa, and Hirano traveled to the Prelaunch Training and Post-Flight Rehabilitation Complex for Cosmonauts of Star City (Moscow Region).
“The crew’s rehabilitation will last from 14 to 21 days, depending on how the crew feel. During this time, the cosmonauts regain normal physical form, under the supervision of doctors, they go swimming, hiking and gradually increase the load on the muscles,” a Roscosmos statement explains.
Deep space medical experiment
On December 21 veteran cosmonaut Misurkin will continue his participation in the Lazma medical experiment, which began in the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center before the flight, and then continued during the orbital mission. The Sozvezdiye-LM experiment also remains traditional with the main purpose to study the human capability to fly into deep space and work on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. Misurkin has logged 346 days and 7 hours on three space missions.
Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The duo’s space tourist journey lasted a total of 12 days under the command of cosmonaut Misurkin. Space Adventures has been cooperating with Roscosmos since the world’s first space tourist flight in 2001. The successful completion of the flight by their clients, Maezawa and Hirano, makes them the eighth and ninth private astronauts to have visited the space station with Space Adventures and the private first spaceflight participants from Japan.
Maezawa is one of the richest people in Japan as founder of the online clothing store Zozotown. In addition, he is an art collector and founder of the Contemporary Art Foundation.
Hirano joined Zozo after graduating as a casting director for a photography group. He currently works as a producer for SPACETODAY. On the ISS, Hirano was responsible for covering the flight of Maezawa.
Pre-flight photo of Japanese spaceflight participants Yozo Hirano (left) and Yusaku Maezawa (right) with Alexander Misurkin (center).
Credit: Roscosmos
Preventive measures
The space tourists took part in the station’s scientific program: in particular, in the Lazma medical experiment, aimed at studying blood microcirculation in microgravity conditions.
Space tourist crew onboard the ISS.
Credit: Roscosmos via Space Adventures
“The results obtained during the study will further help in the development of preventive measures. The improvement of existing preventive measures is especially important for prospective deep-space flights,” stated Roscosmos. “The elimination of unpleasant symptoms associated with circulatory disorders will help cosmonauts avoid getting sick and maintain high performance on the station. Thanks to the Japanese tourists, this is the first time this project has been carried out aboard the ISS.”
A just-issued video shows the Soyuz MS-20 crew being extracted from their landed space capsule.
Go to: https://youtu.be/0Yq5rWZS02E
Posted in Space News
