spacetoday.net: ISS crew lands in Kazakhstan

Posted: Tue, Dec 1, 2009, 6:47 AM ET (1147 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-13 landing (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Canadian, European, and Russian ISS crewmembers safely landed in Kazakhstan Tuesday. The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, and CSA astronaut Robert Thirsk landed near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan at 2:15 am EST (0615 GMT, 1:15 pm local time) Tuesday. The three departed the space station Monday night in the Soyuz spacecraft and had a normal reentry and landing. Recovery crews arrived at the capsule on all-terrain vehicles instead of helicopters because of cold, icy weather at the landing site. All three people spent 188 days in space, including 186 on the ISS as parts of Expeditions 20 and 21. Only two people remain on the ISS currently: NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. They will be joined in late December by three new crew members launching on a Soyuz.