spacetoday.net: Soyuz spacecraft returns to Earth

Posted: Wed, Jun 2, 2010, 6:45 AM ET (1045 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-17 landing (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three ISS crewmembers landed safely in Kazakhstan early Wednesday. The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft undocked from the ISS at 8:04 pm EDT Tuesday (0004 GMT Wednesday) and landed east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 11:25 pm EDT Tuesday (0325 GMT Wednesday). On board the spacecraft were Expedition 23 commander Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who spent five and a half months on the ISS. Three people--Alexander Skvortskov, Mikhail Kornienko, and Tracy Caldwell Dyson--remain on the station; they will be joined later this month by Douglas Wheelock, Shannon Walker, and Fyodor Yurchickhin, who are scheduled for launch on a Soyuz on June 16.