spacetoday.net: Soyuz lands in Kazakhstan

Posted: Fri, Sep 16, 2011, 8:19 AM ET (1219 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-21 landing (NASA/B. Ingalls)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three ISS crewmembers landed safely in Kazakhstan early Friday, but not without some nervous moments during its descent. The Soyuz TMA-21 capsule landed at 11:59 pm EDT Thursday (0359 GMT, 9:59 am local time Friday) in Kazakhstan. The three people on board, American astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko, were in good health after landing. While the landing appeared normal, communications between the spacecraft and ground controllers were lost for several minutes during reentry, raising fears that something had happened to the spacecraft. Three crewmembers remain on the ISS, where they will stay until November 22. NASA announced Thursday that the ISS partners had rescheduled the delayed launch of a replacement crew for November 14. That launch has been postponed because of the failure of another Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress resupply spacecraft last month.