MISSION/STUDY INFORMATION

In mid-November 2012, Expedition 34 started when the Soyuz TMA-05M undocked and returned three of the Expedition 33 crewmembers back to Earth. When they undocked, NASA crewmember Kevin Ford became the commander with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin on board as Flight Engineers. On December 5, 2012, veteran astronauts Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn along with veteran cosmonaut Roman Romanenko joined these three to complete the Expedition 34 crew. Expedition 34 will last until mid-March 2013.

Soyuz TMA-06M was scheduled to undock from ISS on March 14, 2013, but was delayed one day due to inclement weather that would hinder recovery efforts at the landing zone northeast of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan. On March 15, the Soyuz spacecraft undocked from the ISS under the command of Oleg Novitskiy, returning himself, Ford and Tarelkin to Earth.

After the Soyuz undocked, Expedition 35 began aboard the station under the command of Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency. Hadfield will be the first Canadian commander. He and his crew mates, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, will tend to the station for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.