Three astronauts yesterday landed safely in the Kazakh steppe aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule after five months aboard the International Space Station, Russian mission control said.
The hitch-free landing is a boost for Russia
American Mike Fossum, Japan’s Satoshi Furukawa and Russia’s Sergei Volkov touched down outside the remote settlement of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan just before sunrise.
They had undocked from the ISS earlier in the day.
“It has landed,” said a message flashed on the screen at Moscow mission control in a live relay. State television pictures focused on the astronauts leaving the capsule apparently in good health.
The Soyuz craft landed on its side rather than its bottom after its descent to earth with a parachute but such a landing was not unusual. Touchdown was on time and on target at 02.26 GMT. The hitch-free landing of the Soyuz is a boost for the Russian space programme, which has been battling to restore confidence in its reliability after a spate of disasters in unmanned spaceflight.
State television pictures showed ground workers moving quickly to carry the three men from the capsule. This was to protect them from the initial shock of temperatures of minus 15 degrees Celsius after their half year stay on the ISS. Mr Volkov was the first to emerge followed by Mr Fossum and Mr Furukawa.
All were carried out by ground workers as the experience of prolonged weightlessness means that they cannot initially walk unassisted.
The three men were sat down in chairs with blue rugs to protect themselves from the sub zero morning temperatures as dawn broke over the snow-dusted steppe. Mr Fossum was shown chatting on a mobile phone.
They were then taken to a nearby medical tent put up next to the touchdown site to have their space suits removed and go through standard medical tests before being helicoptered to the northern Kazakh city of Kostanay.
The three had spent 167 days in space – slightly more than the 161 day mission originally envisaged as the return was delayed by almost a week due to the Progress mishap.
Their return to earth leaves three astronauts remaining on the ISS, American Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin who blasted off from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 14.
They will be joined by another multinational crew of three astronauts that is due to take off from Baikonur on December 21.
Following the retirement of the US shuttle in July, Russia is currently the only nation capable of transporting humans to the ISS.