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The Russian Soyuz TMA-16 space capsule, carrying a Expedition 22 US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut - Source: Reuters
A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a US astronaut and a
Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed
safely in Kazakhstan.
The capsule - ferrying Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and
Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev - landed in the vast steppe near the
town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan as planned, Russia's Mission
Control said.
"The descent capsule of the Soyuz TMA-16 ... has landed," an
announcer at Mission Control outside Moscow said to applause from
space officials and controllers.
"The capsule is lying on its side."
The capsule, charred on re-entry, ended its three-and-a-half-hour
ride to Earth in a puff of dust after activating its boosters to
cushion the touchdown.
"The crew is safe. They say they are in a great mood," a Mission
Control official said several minutes later, while rescue teams
were opening the hatch of the capsule and preparing for medical
checks on the crew.
Three men remain aboard the $US100 billion, 16-nation ISS: US
Flight Engineer Timothy Creamer, Japanese Flight Engineer Soichi
Noguchi and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov.
The expedition, which is numbered 23 and is led by Kotov, will
expand to a six-member crew on April 4 after three others -
Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and US
astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson - arrive at the ISS aboard a Soyuz
spacecraft.
Russia will ferry all crews to the ISS aboard its single-use Soyuz
spaceships after US space agency NASA mothballs its shuttle fleet
by the end of this year.
Earlier this month Russia announced a halt to space tourism to free
capacity for ISS flights.
It plans to double the number of launches to four this year as permanent crews of professionals aboard the expanded ISS are set to rise to six.
