MOSCOW -- The head of Russias space agency promised today that it would find out quickly what caused a Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts to land hundreds of miles away from its intended target.
Yuri Koptev, head of the Russian Space Agency, said the capsule that dropped Ken Bowersox, Don Pettit and Soyuz commander Nikolai Budarin 120 miles north of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan would be taken to Moscow within a couple of days and examined. It could yield answers almost immediately, he said.
The crew, which left the International Space Station in the hands of a new two-man crew after a five-month stay, arrived by plane at a military air base north of Moscow today. The men were greeted by cheering family members, officials and a mob of photographers.
Budarin was off the plane first, raising his hands to the cheering crowd, followed by a grinning Bowersox, the former station commander. Pettit, who had routine post-flight medical treatment in Kazakhstan, according to a NASA spokesman, came off last.
A few minutes later, at Star City - the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center north of Moscow - the returning explorers were given a traditional welcoming gift of bread and salt before being sequestered by flight surgeons. Bowersox said he was looking forward to a walk among the trees with his wife and getting back to Houston later this month to hug his kids.
Bowersox called the landing a "normal return to Earth" while he was in Kazakhstan, but it was anything but. A large number of Russian and NASA officials and families at the mission control center north of Moscow were biting their nails for two-and-a-half hours while helicopters and planes searched for the missing ship, which landed almost 300 miles outside its target area. "I was worried early, often, regularly, all the way through this entire engagement," NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe admitted afterward.
He praised the new and old station crews. "Theyre a heroic bunch on both sides, in both crews, and there was not a moment when I thought any of this would be routine. It has proven to be nothing but that. But across the way, the depth of the partnership, I think, has been demonstrated."
Later, at the air base, OKeefe acknowledged "very anxious moments this morning" and said astronaut Jim Newman, NASAs representative in Star City, would be involved in the Soyuz investigation.
OKeefe and Koptev held an impromptu press conference today after the safe landing was confirmed, with OKeefe repeatedly emphasizing the friendship between the U.S. and Russia, and embracing Koptev.
OKeefe is to return to Washington Monday, after meeting with Koptev to discuss International Space Station issues, including funding. U.S. assistance must be managed through the other international partners, because the Iran Non-Proliferation Act prohibits direct payments to Russia.
Russias Soyuz and Progress flights are critical to keeping the station manned and supplied while the shuttles are grounded. Space shuttles will not fly again until the Gehman board finishes its investigation of the Columbia accident, which killed all seven crew members upon the ships reentry into the atmosphere on Feb. 1.
That event was on everyones mind when Bowersoxs capsule wasnt immediately located. Although communication with the crew was reported solid during descent, it was cut off upon landing.
The capsules discovery by a search plane - with the astronauts outside and waving in the Kazakh desert - was greeted by cheers of relief among the exhausted crowd in the mission control center outside Moscow, some of whom had been there all night.
Ivanov Nikolai Mikhailovich, an expert on ballistic or shallow entries for the Russian Space Agency, said Budarin, Bowersox and Pettit could have experienced a G-load of nine if they made a shallow entry. Thats nine times the force of gravity and twice the forces that Soyuz crews usually experience.
Bowersox, eagerly chomping on a banana and wearing a yellow T-shirt aboard the airplane flight back to Star City, downplayed the off-the-mark landing as he chatted casually with NASAs space station manager Bill Gerstenmaier and astronaut Mike Foale, soon to get his own stint on Alpha. Bowersox and Gerstenmaier said they were confident in the Soyuz and the Russians preparation for landing.
"It was fantastic for me as a test pilot to do the first re-entry of a test vehicle," Bowersox said of the Soyuz TMA, an upgraded version of the venerable Russian craft that has flown for decades. "Today is a perfect example of how things you dont expect to happen do. We all expected a 100 percent nominal entry, but thats what happens when you test fly a new vehicle."
Resolving the mystery of the wayward capsule will be critical for the Russian Space Agency, since the Soyuz is the only ship now capable of taking crews to and from the station. Gerstenmaier said NASA will be involved in the investigation because of the capsules importance to the station project, but expressed no concerns about the reliability of the craft. The second Soyuz TMA took the Expedition 7 crew, Yuri Malenchenko and Ed Lu, to the station just over a week ago and will take them home in six months, when they are to be replaced by another Soyuz crew.
If shuttles are flying by early 2004, as some officials suggest, that crew - expected to be NASAs Foale and Russias Alexander Kaleri - could be relieved by a space shuttle. Foale, however, said he expected he and Kaleri would serve a full six months on the station.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2003 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
advertisement
