2 December 2009 / ,
Three astronauts landed safely in the frozen steppe of northern Kazakhstan on Tuesday after six months orbiting the world on the International Space Station.
The Russian Soyuz space capsule, carrying Belgian Frank de Winne, Canadian Robert Thirsk and Russian Roman Romanenko, landed as planned at 10:17 a.m. Moscow time (0717 GMT) about 85 kilometers (50 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan. De Winne waved as he was helped from the scorched TMA-15 capsule which took more than three hours to descend from the space station orbitting about 400 kilometers (250 miles) above earth. The Soyuz commander has just reported that the crew is in good shape,” said an official at Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow. Icy weather meant that support teams traveled over land rather than in helicopters to the desolate landing site where medics gave the crew check ups. The crew flew back to Russia’s space training center in Star City, outside Moscow, later on Tuesday for a reunion with their families and for training on how to deal with gravity after six months on the space station, NASA said. Arkalyk, Kazakhstan Reuters/AP
