International Space Station 23 crew lands safely in Kazakhstan
June 2nd, 2010 - 10:48 pm ICT by BNO NewsWASHINGTON, D. C. (BNO NEWS) – The International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 23 crew landed safely in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, NASA said.
Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi landed their Soyuz-17 spacecraft Tuesday at 11:25 p.m. EDT east of Dzhezkazgan, wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month stay aboard the ISS.
The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 21, 2009. As members of the Expedition 22 and 23 crews, they spent 161 days on the station, supporting three space shuttle missions that delivered the U.S. Tranquility module and its cupola, put the finishing touches on U.S. laboratory research facilities, and attached the Russian Rassvet laboratory and storage module.
On Tuesday, Kotov, who has logged 360 total days in space on his two missions, the Soyuz commander, was at the controls of the spacecraftm which undocked at 8:04 p.m. EDT from the aft port on the station’s Zvezda module. Russian recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and adjust to gravity after 163 days in space.
Kotov will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow. NASA astronaut Creamer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Noguchi will return to Houston on Wednesday, as they have each logged 163 and 177 days in space, respectively.
Currently, the station is occupied by Expedition 24 Commander Alexander Skvortskov, who took command on Monday, NASA Flight Engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russian Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko, who arrived April 4.
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