Bad Weather Might Delay Soyuz TMA-10M Landing Tonight

Bad weather in Kazakhstan could lead to a postponement of the scheduled landing of Soyuz TMA-10M late tonight Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).   A go/no-go decision is expected late this afternoon.

Soyuz TMA-10M with cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy and astronaut Mike Hopkins is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 8:02 pm EDT and land at 11:24 pm EDT (9:24 am Tuesday local time at the landing site).  NASA photographer Bill Ingalls, who is in Kazakhstan to cover the landing, tweeted this morning that the helicopter he was in was returning to Karaganda because of the bad weather.

 

Weather was a bit thick so we turned our helo around and we are back in #Karaganda #Kazakhstan awaiting weather update. #exp38 #soyuz

— Bill Ingalls (@ingallsimages) March 10, 2014

 

NASA Johnson Space Center spokesman Josh Byerly said that the landing commission will meet at 4:00 pm EDT today to decide whether or not to proceed with the landing.   If it must be postponed, the landing “would be later this week most likely,” he added, rather than tomorrow.

If the landing goes ahead tonight, NASA TV coverage is scheduled as follows:

• TV coverage begins at 4:30 pm EDT for hatch closure (which is at 4:45 pm EDT)
• TV coverage begins at 7:45 pm EDT for undocking (which is at 8:02 pm EDT)
• TV coverage begins at 10:15 pm EDT for landing (which is at 11:24 pm EDT)

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