Soyuz space capsule lands safely

A Soyuz capsule carrying Austin computer game designer Richard Garriott and two Russian cosmonauts descended safely into remote Kazakhstan late Thursday, ending a worrisome string of two jarring landings by the venerable spacecraft.
Helicopter-borne recovery forces arrived quickly at the landing site to assist the three men as their capsule touched down under parachute on target north of Arkalyk in Central Kazakhstan at 03:37 UTC. With Garriott, were Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, the space station’s former commander and flight engineer.The cosmonauts returned from a 199-day mission to the orbital outpost.

Helicopters with recovery personnel were stationed along a ground track to the southwest of Arkalyk Thursday night just in case another Soyuz strayed off course. Russian experts traced the cause of the two worrisome landings to the explosive bolts that latch the descent compartment holding the astronauts to a propulsion module that is designed to break away as the crew cabin plunges into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The departure was an emotional one. Volkov’s crew embraced Mike Fincke and Yuri Lonchakov, who reached the station with Garriott to take over as the station’s American commander and Russian flight engineer. “You’ve done so much,” Fincke told Volkov and Kononenko. “You left the space station in really fine shape.”
American Greg Chamitoff, who arrived at the station aboard the shuttle Discovery in early June, remained aboard as well. He’ll return to Earth in late November aboard the shuttle Endeavour. “We tried to do our best,” Volkov assured Fincke.

Source: mark.carreau@chron.com

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