The
International Space Station's (ISS) first female commander said her 'dramatic'
landing aboard a Russian spacecraft last week capped a landmark mission to
build up the orbiting laboratory.
NASA
astronaut Peggy Whitson said in an audio recording released Tuesday
that her off-target
landing aboard a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft on Saturday was "more
dramatic than I was expecting," but not as bad as she anticipated.
Whitson
returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Yuri
Malenchenko and South Korean spaceflyer So-yeon Yi. They touched down about 260
miles (420 km) short of their intended
landing site and under a backup, ballistic mode. The landing subjected them to forces eight times that of Earth's gravity, while normal Soyuz descents reach about six times Earth's gravity.
"Shortly
after [module separation] we switched automatically to the ballistic mode,
which means we were going to be spinning up to 8 Gs and coming in on a steeper
descent," said Whitson, who commanded the station's six-month Expedition 16
mission, in the post-landing recording. "I saw 8.2 Gs on the meter; it was
pretty, pretty dramatic. Gravity is not my friend right now, and 8 Gs was
especially not my friend, but it didn't last too long."
Russian
engineers are investigating what caused the steeper-than-normal descent - the second
in a row for a returning Soyuz. They are also looking into a potential issue
with the separation of the spacecraft's propulsion and crew-carrying modules,
NASA officials have said.
"You know [parachute]
deploy was nominal and impact ... I guess maybe because I heard so many stories,
wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting," Whitson said.
Whitson
added that Malenchenko, who commanded the Soyuz during launch and landing, kept his crew on task during the descent.
"Yuri is a
great Soyuz commander and he did a great job throughout the entire time making
sure we were on procedure and everything happened appropriately," Whitson said.
Her first sensations
after landing included a light breeze outside the Soyuz, the sound of birds and
the smell of burnt grass from brush fires, which NASA officials said were set by nearby farmers. Local Kazakhs
were the first to welcome them back to Earth, the astronauts added.
"It was
just some guys who had seen it," Whitson said, adding that they arrived in time
to help her and Yi exit the spacecraft. "It worked out really well and we just
waited until the search and rescue team arrived."
The landing
marked the end of an 11-day flight for Yi and marathon construction flight
for Whitson and Malenchenko during their Expedition 16 mission.
"This
expedition was probably one of the most amazing expeditions that has ever occurred
on space station," NASA space operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier said Tuesday.
Whitson and Malenchenko launched in October to host several NASA space shuttle
crews as they added new hardware to the space station. Together, they helped
fix damaged solar arrays and joints, and installed a connecting hub, European lab, Japanese storage room and
a Canadian robot during their expedition.
"I think I
was really lucky to be in a place and at a time when so many different
activities were going on," said Whitson, who set a new U.S. record for total time
in space. The 192-day Expedition 16 flight pushed her to 377 total days in
space over two flights, the most of any NASA astronaut. "When we separated, I
was waving at the station."
Whitson,
Malenchenko and a series of rotating crew members also performed a total of
five spacewalks, some challenging robotic arm tasks and welcomed the arrival of
a Europe's first unmanned cargo ship during their mission.
"Thrown in
among that were two Progress [cargo ships] and three shuttles," she added.
Before
leaving the space station, Whitson told SPACE.com that while there were
many high points during her mission, gazing down at Earth while working
outside the space station in a spacesuit was near the top of her list.
The lowest
point, she said in the recording, came in December, when the mother of her U.S.
crewmate Dan Tani was killed in a car-train accident near Chicago.
"The low
points, it's hard to have any, but Dan's mom past away," Whitson said, her
voice breaking at times.
During her
six months in space, Whitson gained a reputation for quick and efficient work
that constantly kept mission managers scrambling to come up with new tasks.
Flight controllers dubbed it the "Peggy Factor," but Whitson said she only
wanted to do a good job.
"I've
always said I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I am able to work really
hard," she said. "So I think that helped get me to where I was able to do this
mission."
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