ISS astronauts safely home after uncoupling malfunction

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 27 2010, 10:32

A trio of thumb-twiddling astronauts have successfully returned to Earth after malfunctioning hatch gears aboard the International Space Station (ISS) had initially prevented the uncoupling of their Soyuz capsule.

NASA astronaut Tracey Caldwell-Dyson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko touched down safely on the central steppes of Kazakhstan at 1:23 a.m. (ET), bringing to an end their six-month mission high above the planet.

The crew's initial attempt to depart the orbiting science facility was cancelled on Thursday when a faulty electrical circuit prevented the capsule's station-side connectors from releasing. The problem, which was deemed as not serious by NASA, was fixed by applying a jumper cable.   

“This crew... had to deal with some very serious problems in orbit and they met every challenge professionally and fixed all the problems,” commented Mark Bauman, deputy director of manned space programmes at NASA.

“I think we can see the benefit of having humans in space to keep the station healthy and yielding the science that it will yield,” he added.

With the docking issue duly solved, the Soyuz TMA-18 capsule departed from the International Space Station at around 10 p.m. on Friday evening before performing a de-orbit burn and beginning its descent at just after midnight.

Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and astronauts Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker have remained aboard the ISS and are scheduled to be joined by three new crew members in October when the space shuttle Discovery makes its final journey into near-Earth orbit.

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