CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Two Russian cosmonauts and a French astronaut returned to Earth late Tuesday after a week-long visit to the International Space Station in which the crew taxied a new Soyuz rescue ship up to the frontier outpost and then came home in an older Soyuz that had been docked there since May.
Now safely on the ground: Victor Afanasyev, Konstantin Kozeev and Claudie Haignere -- the first European woman to spend time at space station Alpha.
They leave behind the Expedition Three crew of Frank Culbertson, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin, who have been living and working aboard the ISS -- and haven't seen other humans -- since August.
"Don't be blue because you're lonely now," an unidentified Rrussian ground controller said shortly after the taxi crew departed.
Riding inside the Soyuz capsule -- the same one that carried space tourist Dennis Tito into orbit on April 28 -- the three-person crew undocked from the ISS at 8:39 p.m. EST (0139 GMT Wednesday) and landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 11:58 p.m. EST (0458 GMT Wednesday).
A rescue team was dispatched to greet the crew and reports from Russian news media indicated the Soyuz taxi crew was in excellent shape following their 10-day voyage. As is tradition, the crew will be immediately returned to Star City near Moscow for post-flight medical checks and mission debriefings.
Program officials say everything went well with the taxi mission.A Soyuz spacecraft remains docked to the station at all times, ready to bring home an Expedition crew in an emergency. The problem is that the vehicles can remain in space only for about six months, so twice a year Russia must send up a new rescue ship.
The flight requires only two people, but the Soyuz can carry three. As a result, Russian space interests have been selling the third seat. Tito claimed the first seat in April/May and on this mission it was Haignere, who is a European Space Agency astronaut and has flown aboard space station Mir.
While Tito's goal was mostly sightseeing, Haignere operated a full complement of science experiments that kept her busy during the past week while her crewmates transferred cargo and supplies between the two Soyuz's and the station.
Their final day aboard Alpha began Tuesday morning with last-minute packing, while on the other end of the outpost the Expedition Three crew was speaking via radio with legendary CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite in an interview that was broadcast on NASA TV.
It didn't take long for the most trusted man in America to steer the conversation toward talk of using the station as a place for rehabilitation from certain injuries or to treat medical patients with specific ailments.
"Got any predictions on that," Cronkite said, briefly pausing. "Any chance of my coming, is what I'm really asking?"
"I knew that was what you were getting to, sir," Culbertson replied with a smile.
"It's difficult to support the presence of people who aren't working members of the crew," the former Navy captain said. "I believe that some day in the future, maybe not too far off, we will have facilities where people can go for rehabilitation or treatment, or for enjoyment and tourism. And I think that someday we should develop that if we can, and I think business should invest in that. People would love to live and work and play in space."
The interview, which also included questions from ABC's "Good Morning America," was arranged as part of celebrations involving the one-year anniversary of a permanent human presence aboard the ISS.
It was one year ago today that the Expedition One crew was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Led by commander William Shepherd, the crew docked with and boarded the Zvezda service module two days later on Nov. 2, 2000.
The Expedition Three crew is scheduled to mark the anniversary on Friday, and then with that behind them they will begin the final leg of their four-month stay in space, with the next major event planned for Nov. 12 when Culbertson and Dezhurov will venture outside for some assembly work.
Shuttle Endeavour, meanwhile, remains scheduled for launch Nov. 29 on a mission to ferry the Expedition Four crew up to the station. The shuttle -- which is being moved to its seaside launch pad today -- is to return the Expedition Three crew to Earth on Dec. 10.
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