spacetoday.net: ISS crew returns to Earth

Posted: Sat, Mar 16, 2013, 9:06 AM ET (1306 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-06M crew after landing (NASA)

Two Russian and one American ISS crewmembers safely landed early Saturday in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft landed at the planned landing site northeast of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, at 11:08 pm EDT Friday (0308 GMT, 9:08 am local time Saturday), about three and a half hours after undocking from the ISS. Recovery operations were hampered by poor weather, which had already delayed the Soyuz's return to Earth by one day. NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin were on the Soyuz, having spent 144 days in space. Three people remain on the ISS: Canadian Chris Hadfield, American Tom Marshburn, and Russian Roman Romanenko. Three new ISS crewmembers are scheduled for launch in late March.