A Soyuz spacecraft descended by parachute into remote Kazakhstan late Tuesday, ending a 163-day journey to the International Space Station for the U. S., Russian and Japanese astronauts on board.
The capsule carrying Oleg Kotov, the station’s former commander as well as Timothy Creamer and Soichi Noguchi, the station’s U. S. and Japanese flight engineers, touched down at 11:25 p.m., EDT, on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The three men were promptly joined by Russian-led, helicopter borne search and rescue teams who helped the men from the spacecraft and provided medical exams.
Later, Kotov was to be flown by helicopter and Russian transport to Star City, Russia. Creamer and Noguchi were to fly to Houston, Texas to re-united with their families late Wednesday and begin a physical rehabilitation program to rebuild bones and muscles weakened by more than five months of weigtlessness.
Kotov’s crew greeted three NASA space shuttle crews during their stay and built up the scientific research under way on the orbiting laboratory. They assisted with the addition of the Russia’s “Rassvet” mini research and docking module as it was delivered by the shuttle Atantis last month.
Their departure left the station to Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and American Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Skvortsov assumed command of the station on Monday.
Skvortsov’s Expedition 24 crew will be joined later this month by Americans Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin. Their Soyuz is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 15 at 5:35 p.m, EDT, and reach the station two days later.