The crew aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft carrying the International Space Station's first female commander, South Korea's first astronaut and Russian flight engineer, Colonel Yuri I. Malenchenko landed safely in Kazakhstan over the weekend, despite a hiccup which saw them land some 295 miles away from their intended target zone.
The capsule carrying ISS commander Peggy Whitson, South Korea\'s first astronaut So-yeon Yi and Russian commander Colonel Yuri I. Malenchenko has landed safely in Kazakhstan. Photo: NASA\'s record-breaking astronaut Peggy Whitson. Credit: NASA
"The crew is alive and well. The landing was nominal, but by a backup design," said Anatoly Perminov, chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency, after Saturday's landing. "It was a ballistic descent and all the cosmonauts are feeling fine."
According to NASA , a ballistic descent is one where the descent is far speedier than expected.
"Recovery forces, at least two helicopters, are in route," said NASA commentator John Ira Petty, who was monitoring the descent from mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"There are indications the spacecraft could have landed well short of that targeted site. One possibility that has been raised is that of a ballistic entry. That could have occasioned such a shortfall. Again, no indication that anything is amiss with the spacecraft," he reported.
Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson earlier told reporters she was looking forward to resuming life on Earth and was most looking forward to a wider variety of food and tending her garden in Houston, Texas.
"We've really had a very exciting mission," Whitson said this week. "And to have done so much, it was more than we could have asked for."
Talking about her immediate plans she added: "I really like working in my garden and planting flowers," Whitson said. "It's about the right time in Houston to be doing that."
Commander Whitson's 192-day mission gave her a combined total of 377 days in space, a new record for a US astronaut. Her time as commander added new science and living space to the ISS moving towards an expansion of the station which could accommodate more people.
Meanwhile So-yeon Yi, who entered the space station under a $25 million dollar deal between South Korea and the Russian Space Agency, said earlier that she wanted her fellow country people to "dream about space".
"As a woman of Korea, and just a person of Korea, I'm so honored to be the one who flew in space," she told reporters earlier this week.
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