This story was updated at 2:41 a.m. EST.
A Canadian, a Russian and a Belgian astronaut left the
International Space Station and landed on the icy steppes of Kazakhstan Tuesday
aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Belgian astronaut Frank
DeWinne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Bob
Thirsk touched down in their Soyuz TMA-15 crew capsule at 2:15 a.m. EST (0715
GMT) after heavy parachutes slowed the craft's descent.
The landing went smoothly, though the subzero temperatures
in Kazakhstan prevented helicopters from flying to retrieve the crew as usual.
Instead, the Russian Federal Space Agency sent teams in all-terrain vehicles to
recover the spaceflyers.
The three crewmembers are finishing a six-month tour of duty
on the
orbiting laboratory. When their spacecraft left the outpost their
Expedition 21 mission officially ended and the new Expedition 22 began.
DeWinne served as the first station commander representing
the European Space Agency.
"As the first European commander, it has been a great
honor to be able to fulfill this role, and I could have only done this thanks
to the help of my colleagues," DeWinne said during a change-of-command
ceremony Nov. 24, when he handed over control of the station to NASA
astronaut Jeff Williams.
The station is now down to a barebones
crew of two — Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev — for a period of
about three weeks.
The departing crewmembers said they were eager to be back on
the ground.
"I miss my family most of all, of course," Thirsk
said during an in-flight news conference last week. "I am already dreaming
of those first hugs when I see my family in Moscow. After that is nature. I miss
the wind; I miss the sunlight, the smell of flowers, and freshly cut grass."
The spaceflyers said they became close during the long
months living and working together in close quarters.
"I really appreciate my friends," Romanenko said
of his crewmates. "We had a very good time together, we had a very good experience
during our six-month flight."
Romanenko is the son of veteran cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko,
who commanded three space missions in the 1970s and 1980s.
During their 186 days on the station, DeWinne, Romanenko and
Thirsk saw the addition of a new science porch on the station's Japanese Kibo
laboratory, the arrival of the first Japanese unmanned cargo ship, called HTV,
and the addition of the new Russian Poisk module to the station.
During their tenure three space shuttle flights visited the
station to deliver new parts and equipment, and at one point a record three
Soyuz spacecraft were simultaneously docked at the outpost.
Thirsk said a highlight was the HTV
mission to deliver food, computers and other supplies. The flight represented
the first flight of the untried vehicle.
"The most exciting moment was the arrival of the HTV
Japanese cargo vehicle," Thirsk said. "That went off perfectly."
advertisement
