This story was updated at 9:22 p.m. EDT.
A space clown and two professional spaceflyers are due to
return home to Earth Sunday from the International Space Station.
The trio closed the hatches between their Soyuz spacecraft
and the orbiting laboratory at 6:06 p.m. EDT (2206 GMT) and undocked at 9:07
p.m. EDT (0107 GMT Sunday), after saying farewell to their crewmates still
onboard the station.
"Goodbye station," said
departing Expedition 20 commander Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut.
Canadian space tourist and circus
clown Guy Laliberte - the founder of Cirque du Soleil - wore his trademark
red clown nose as he hugged the station residents goodbye.
"I would like to express my gratefulness to all my
crewmates," Padalka said during a ceremony to hand over control of the
station to Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne. "Without my crewmates I would
be nothing as commander."
Rookie spaceflyer Mike Barratt is also making the trip home.
"For a first flight I'm probably one of the luckiest
astronauts," Barratt said. "My first flight was incredible."
The spaceflyers are due to land in Kazakhstan aboard a
Russian Soyuz spacecraft at 12:31 a.m. EDT (0431 GMT) Sunday.
Space clown
Laliberte is wrapping up an 11-day paid trip to space, which
he dedicated to raising awareness for water conservation. His mission culminated
in a performance he hosted Friday night from space, in which artists in 14
cities around the world used dance, song and poetry to celebrate water.
For his part, Laliberte, who paid more than $35 million to
the Russian Federal Space Agency (through the U.S. firm Space Adventures), said
the trip was worth
every penny.
"What I've been experiencing here has been an amazing
journey," he said. "This was a moment to create awareness toward the
situation of water in the world. I don't have 25 years, the world don't have 25
years to address the situation of water. I think this was a great opportunity
to combine to a personal dream also."
Space veterans
Padalka and Barrat are completing a six-month tour of duty
on the orbiting laboratory, where Padalka served as commander of the Expedition
20 mission. On Friday he handed control of the station over to European Space
Agency astronaut Frank
De Winne of Belgium, who became the first European station commander.
"Our mission was very, very long and very productive,
and I would say very eventful," Padalka said Tuesday via radio link from
the station. "Right now we are ready to go home, and I hope that the space
station will be left in a great position for the next commander and the next
crew."
Barratt, a first-time spaceflyer, was an Expedition 20
flight engineer. Waiting for him at home are his wife and five children.
"I have a big family and that's the strongest magnet on
the planet," Barratt said Monday. "I need to get home to them. But at
the same time I'm going to be truly sad to leave this place. This crew up here
has become a second family."
Barratt won't have much time to rest once he gets home.
While in space, he was assigned to fly on the last
scheduled space shuttle mission, the STS-133 flight of Discovery slated for
September 2010. He plans to begin training for that mission soon after
returning to Earth.
"It's been a long time since I've trained on shuttle so
as soon as I land, I'm going to hit the books," Barratt said.
Padalka and Barratt were part of the space station's
first-ever six-person crew, doubled from the previous teams of three.
"The main goal of our mission was six-person
crew," Padalka said. The expanded population helps keep the station
running smoothly and allows astronauts to take on more science research work.
SPACE.com is providing full coverage Laliberte's fight
and the Expedition 20 landing with Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click here for mission updates and live
mission coverage.
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