spacetoday.net: Soyuz lands safely

Posted: Sat, Sep 25, 2010, 9:06 AM ET (1306 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-18 landing (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three people from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan early Saturday, one day later than planned. The Soyuz TMA-18 capsule landed near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 1:23 am EDT (0523 GMT) Saturday, a little over three hours after the spacecraft undocked from the ISS. On board the capsule were Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and US astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who each spent 174 days on the station as members of the Expedition 23 and 24 crews. The landing had been scheduled for Friday but as postponed when the Soyuz was unable to undock from the station; the problem was linked to a hatch sensor problem that was fixed on Friday. Three people remain on the station, and will be joined by three more on a Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch on October 8.