International Space Station Crew Welcomed
Posted on: Monday, 19 May 2003, 06:00 CDT
STAR CITY, Russia (AP) -- Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut were officially welcomed back to Earth on Monday, two weeks after their rough landing in the Kazakh steppe from the international space station.
Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and U.S. astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit laid flowers below a statue of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Accompanied by their wives and surrounded by well-wishers, they received flowers and the traditional Russian welcome offers of bread and salt.
"We're almost back to 100 percent and we have trainers that make us go through all kinds of weightlifting and cardiovascular exercises every day," Pettit said.
Russia's space program traditionally offers cosmonauts an official welcome about two weeks after they return from space, after they undergo physical and medical tests, and get rest and recuperation.
The three landed nearly 300 miles off course in Kazakhstan on May 4 after an unexpectedly steep descent aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. Russian investigators said last week that the spacecraft's descent control system had probably malfunctioned.
Tension surrounded the Soyuz landing because it was the first return to Earth since the shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry in February, killing all seven crew members. The trio's return was delayed by the tragedy and they ended up spending more than five months in space.
Nikolai Zelenshchikov, who is leading the Russian investigation into the landing, said Monday that tapes of communication between the craft and mission control had not revealed any crew errors, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The three crew members vowed that U.S.-Russian space cooperation would continue.
"It's a tremendous capability that we have on orbit right now," Bowersox told reporters at Monday's ceremony. "We're going to make it even bigger and more powerful and we're going to finish it together."
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