Soyuz MS-24 undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) Rassvet module at around 0353 GMT on 6 April. The crew aboard were NASA astroanaut Loral O’Hara, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus astronaut Marina Vasilevskaya. Soyuz MS-24 landed in Kazakhstan at 0717 GMT on 8 April.
On 11 April, the cubesats Curtis, KASHIWA and MO-1 were released from the Japanese Experimental Module’s Kibo airlock via a Nanoracks dispenser. On 18 April, the cubesats SNOOPI, Burstcube, HYTI, QMSAT, Killick-1, Violet-1, Big Red Sat-1 were released from the Experimental Module’s Kibo airlock via a Nanoracks dispenser.
Cosmonaut Nicholai Chub during his spacewalk in April 2024. Courtesy: Roscosmos
On 25 April, Roscosmos Expedition 71 cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub began their spacewalk (VKD-62). With the Poisk airlock depressurized, the cosmonauts opened the hatch at 1457 GMT. Kononenko and Chub were tasked with unfolding and latching the fourth of four panels for a synthetic radar communications system on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module and installing the Kvartz-M and TKK-KM experiments on the exterior of Poisk. They also had to deploy an antenna panel on the Nabor-miniRSA radar. They rotated the direction of a plume impingement unit used to measure the output of gases from the space station’s thrusters and swabbed the nearby surfaces for later analysis. The cosmonauts completed their mission and the Poisk airlock hatch was closed the 1933 GMT, two hours ahead of schedule. This was the 270th EVA in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades. It was Kononenko’s seventh spacewalk and Chub’s second. Including the latest spacewalk, Kononenko has logged 44 hours and 30 minutes on EVAs spanning three decades. Chub has spent 12 hours and 17 minutes outside of the ISS. This EVA concluded after 4 hours and 36 minutes.
At 0235 GMT on 26 April the ISS carried out a planned orbit correction to maintain the station’s orbit altitude using the PROGRESS MS-26 engines. The orbit altitude was increased for 1 km.
The Dragon CRS-30 cargo craft undocked from ISS IDA-3 port at 1710 GMT on 28 April. Dragon CRS-30 splashed down in Gulf of Mexico at 0540 GMT on 30 April. The capsule was recovered by ship.
There were significant events on the Tiangong Chinese space station (CSS). At 1259 GMT on 25 April, Shenzhou 18 with Chinese astronauts (‘Taikonauts’) Ye Guangfu, Li Guangsu and Li Cong was launched by a Long March 2F/G (CZ-2F/G) rocket from the Jiuquan launch site. Shenzhou-18 successfully docked with the CSS at 1932 GMT, approximately 6.5 hours post launch. Shenzhou-17 spacecraft separated from the Tiangong China Space Station at 0043 GMT on 30 April. Shenzhou 17 with its three crew (Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin) aboard landed at 0946 GMT in Dong Feng landing site in Inner Mongolia on 30 April.
