Mike Fossum, wrapped in blue blanket, is assisted from his Soyuz spacecraft after a wintry landing late Monday. Image Credit/NASA TV
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three U. S., Russian and Japanese astronauts descended safely into remote Kazakhstan late Monday, ending a 167-day voyage to the International Space Station for the three men.
Wintry conditions greeted Mike Fossum, Sergey Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa as their Soyuz 27 mission capsule landed under parachute north of Arkalyk at 9:26 p.m., EST. At the Central Asian landing site, it was just 30 minutes before sunrise on Tuesday.
The weary space travelers were helped from their capsule by Russian led search and recovery teams flown to the site aboard helicopters.
All three men, who launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 8, appeared to be in good shape, said Josh Byerly, a NASA public affairs officers who was among the recovery team.
The astronauts were examined in a medical tent at the the landing site. All three were to be flown to Kustanai in northernKazakhstan for a landing ceremony. Fossum and Furukawa were to board a NASA jet there to be flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston,Tex.Volkov was to be flown toStar City,Russia.
The Soyuz 27 capsule undocked from the space station at 6 p.m., EDT, marking the end of the 29th human expedition to the station. Fossum’s command passed to American Dan Burbank, who leads the Expedition 30 mission.
Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin , passengers aboard the Soyuz 28 mission capsule, docked with the space station on Nov. 16 to start a much abbreviated “hand over” session to familiarize the newcomers with the orbiting science laboratory.
Their flight was delayed for two months by the late August loss of the station bound Progress 44 supply capsule. The loss was traced to a clogged fuel line in the third stage of the Soyuz launcher.
Crew exchanges were suspended while Russian experts mounted an investigation and recovery strategy. Normal six person crew operations on the station were cut to three people.
Another Soyuz spacecraft carrying three U. S., Russian and European astronauts is scheduled to dock with the station on Dec. 23 returning the orbital outpost to sustained six person operations.