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Russian Capsule Returns From Space Station

Posted on: Monday, 25 April 2005, 15:00 CDT

ARKALYK, Kazakhstan - A Russian space capsule parachuted to a soft landing on the slushy Kazakh steppes Monday, gently depositing an American, Russian and Italian back on Earth after their mission on the international space station - the last flight before NASA relaunches the shuttle program as soon as next month.

Helicopters spotted the TMA-5 capsule floating to its designated arrival site about 60 miles north of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan. The capsule landed upright in the melting snow less than 3 1/2 hours after undocking from the orbiting station, where a new crew stayed behind to prepare for the first U.S. space shuttle flight in two years.

"Rescuers' work was complicated this time by two other factors: soft and slushy soil as well as melting snow, which prevented helicopters from landing next to the Soyuz capsule," Vladimir Popov of the Federal Aerospace Search and Rescue Service was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Russia's space program has been the only way of getting astronauts to the station since the Earth-bound Columbia disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board. NASA immediately grounded the shuttle fleet and how hopes to resume flights sometime next month.

"We have spent so much time as an organization and as an agency coming together ... (to) make sure that nothing like that happens again," NASA spokesman Dean Acosta told Associated Press Television News. "Again, we are very optimistic that we will be able ... to get the shuttle back where it needs to be - which is up in space."

State television showed American Leroy Chiao, Russian Salizhan Sharipov and Italian Roberto Vittori smiling soon after the landing and donning traditional Kazakh hats while mugging for cameras.

The crew was whisked to a mobile hospital for a quick checkup and then flew to Star City, the cosmonaut training center outside of Moscow. The three delicately stepped down the plane's stairway, waving and grinning to well-wishers.

A cheering crowd and music greeted them in Star City, where they received bread and salt, the traditional Russian welcome offering.

Chiao and Sharipov had been on the orbiting lab since October, while Vittori, a European Space Agency astronaut, spent eight days there. Russian Mission Control said Sharipov reported that the crew felt fine.

The crew will undergo extensive medical tests over several weeks.

Remaining behind on the station for a six-month mission were Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and American astronaut John Phillips.

Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said that, even after the shuttle resumes flying, Russian Soyuz spacecraft will continue to travel to the station about twice a year to serve as escape vehicles.

William Readdy, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, told reporters at Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow that "we'll continue our steps as partners to complete the international space station and then move on beyond the Earth's orbit."

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Associated Press reporter Bagila Bukharbayeva at Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, Russia, contributed to this report.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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