spacetoday.net: Soyuz lands off course

Posted: Sun, Oct 21, 2007, 9:18 AM ET (1318 GMT)
A Soyuz spacecraft returning from the International Space Station landed safety but over 300 kilometers from its intended target early Sunday. The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft, carrying Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and Malaysian guest cosmonaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, undocked from the ISS at 3:14 am EDT (0714 GMT) Sunday. An apparent computer problem made the capsule to take a steeper than normal "ballistic" trajectory, causing the capsule to land about 340 kilometers west of the planned landing site in Kazakhstan at 6:36 am EDT (1036 GMT). While the descent subjected the crew to higher than normal g-forces, the three cosmonauts were reported to be in good health after landing. Yurchikhin and Kotov were returning to Earth after a six-month stint on the ISS, while Shukor, the first Malaysian in space, had flown to the station on the Soyuz TMA-11 mission earlier this month with Yurchikhin and Kotov's replacements.