Ahoy there! NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russia's Maxim Suraev landed in blustery Kazakhstan this morning, wrapping up a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station. Winds were so high, the crew's Soyuz capsule tipped over on its side at touchdown.
"We're standing out here in blizzard-like conditions," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly, at the landing site in Kazakhstan, said via a NASA broadcast of the 7:24 a.m. EDT landing. "The Russian ground teams are moving fairly quickly through the procedures. They've already moved Jeff and Max to the medical tent."
The crew appeared in good health, though winds dragged their Soyuz capsule 20 to 30 feet after touchdown, Byerly said. The snow was three- to four feet deep.
Three crew members remain aboard the international outpost, a project of 16 countries that is scheduled to be finished this year after more than a decade of construction. Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, who is now in command of the station, Japan's Soichi Noguchi and NASA's Timothy Creamer will keep things running until a Soyuz capsule with three more crewmembers arrive on April 4. Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson won't have too much time to get settled -- seven visitors aboard the space shuttle Discovery are due to arrive on April 7.
(Credit: NASA)
Tags: Astronomy, NASA, Soyuz, Space Shuttle, Space Station,
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