Space to Ground - Return to earth - 05/16/2014

Welcome to space to ground, your weekly look at what’s happening on board ISS. I’m Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters. The space station crew has a new commander. NASA astronaut Steve Swanson took the reins of the orbiting complex on Monday. Now on his third mission, Swanson will serve as commander of the multinational crew until September. And, it’s a much smaller team onboard this week. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata and Mikhail Tyurin returned to earth Tuesday night after more than 188 days on the station. The three touched down in Kazakhstan wrapping up an exciting mission that included science research, flying the Olympic torch and three unplanned spacewalks for Rick Mastracchio. Rick and Koichi arrived back in the United States Wednesday night and will focus on medical evaluations and rehabilitation for the next several weeks. Osteoporosis affects more than 200 million people around the world. Bone loss also affects astronauts in space. But, by studying crew members researchers are learning different ways to help tackle this widespread issue. One study discovered that high-intensity resistive exercise combined with extra vitamin D and proper caloric intake helps astronauts maintain their bone mass. Another study found if astronauts take an osteoporosis medication once a week, combined with exercise, they reduced bone loss. Both of these are important medical developments for keeping astronauts healthy, but they also provide promising research that will help doctors treat aging populations on earth. And now a question from YouTube asks “how long can Soyuz stay docked to the ISS? ?” Soyuz spacecrafts are designed to shuttle crew members back and forth to the ISS and each crew launches and lands in the same Soyuz, so they generally are docked to the station for around six months. However, if needed, they could stay in space up for about 200 days. Keep sending us your questions using hashtag space to ground! And be sure to check back with us next week for more updates from the International Space Station!