Three
astronauts returned to Earth Saturday, ending six months aboard the
International Space Station (ISS) for one crew and a historic first spaceflight
for the country of Brazil.
ISS
Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur, flight engineer Valery Tokarev and
Brazil's first astronaut Marcos
Pontes smiled for cameras after their Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft touched down
on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
"It was a
heck of a ride," McArthur said after landing, comparing it to an amusement park
ride. "It was like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, you'd love it."
McArthur
and Tokarev spent 189 days aboard the ISS before returning to Earth today at
7:48 p.m. EDT (2348 GMT). Pontes racked up 10 days in orbit, a week of which
was spent performing experiments aboard the ISS, under a $10 million
agreement between the space agencies of Brazil and Russia.
"For me
this has been a very special week," Pontes said Friday. "It was my first flight
and it was the first flight for Brazil. I am very happy."
Pontes rode up to
the ISS on March 29 with the space station's new crew, Expedition
13 commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer Jeffrey Williams, which
will spend the next six months aboard the orbital laboratory.
"I'm sure
the space station will be in very good hands from now on," said Pontes, who
initially trained for a shuttle flight since 1998 only to secure
a Soyuz seat last year.
Mission's
end
McArthur,
54, and Tokarev, 53, staged two spacewalks
since they arrived aboard the space station in October
2005. They also tossed an unmanned Russian
spacesuit into orbit as part of a radio experiment.
The
astronauts became the first space station crew to dock a Soyuz spacecraft at every
available Russian-built port, and had the fortune of being in orbit during
a rare
solar eclipse, in which the Moon's shadow was visible on Earth.
"I was
desperate to see it and it was certainly the opportunity of a lifetime,"
McArthur said. "All I could see was a dark
shadow below the station...it was pretty darn big."
The
Expedition 12 crew had hoped to host NASA's second shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia accident - STS-121
aboard Discovery - which was to deliver a third ISS crewmember, European
Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter,
to the orbital laboratory.
Delays due
to ongoing fuel tank foam and sensor modifications for STS-121's external tank
have pushed the spaceflight's launch target to no
earlier than July, placing it within the Expedition 13 crew's increment.
"We'd like
to wish the crew of [Expedition] 13 a successful, uneventful in the good sense,
mission," Tokarev said before leaving the ISS.
Expedition
13's Vinogradov and Williams said they were eager for Reiter to join them in
July and also hope for another shuttle mission in August. That second mission
is expected to restart station
construction efforts, which have been stalled since the Columbia accident.
"Were
looking forward to the weekend, to rest up for a little bit then we'll get down
to business," Williams said after Pontes and the Expedition 12 crew departed.
A final
flight
Before
launching toward the ISS in October, McArthur said he expected Expedition 12 to
be his last
spaceflight, something his wife Cindy - who works in NASA's education
office at Johnson Space Center - is looking forward to.
"I
encouraged him to make that decision on his own," Cindy McArthur told SPACE.com
during the Expedition 12 mission. "He thought it was time for other people to
have a chance to fly. It will be interesting to have him home for awhile, he's
been traveling so much."
A retired U.S. Army colonel, Bill McArthur is a veteran of four spaceflights - three of which aboard NASA space shuttles - though Expedition 12 is his first long-duration flight. Expedition 12 also marked the first long-duration flight for Tokarev, who flew aboard the Discovery orbiter during the STS-96 mission.
Cindy McArthur planned to greet her husband in Russia's Star City with their two
daughters - one of whom is pregnant with the couple's first grandchild - and a
son-in-law.
Earlier
this week, Bill McArthur told reporters that he, and the rest of his relatives,
will learn whether the new child is a boy or girl together as a family.
"It will be
just a delight to see them all," McArthur said.
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