A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-multinational crew touched down safely on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to their 193-day mission to the International Space Station. Around a dozen recovery helicopters zeroed into the vast uncultivated land mass, where NASA astronaut Mr Donald Pettit, Russia’s Mr Oleg Kononenko and Dutchman Mr Andre Kuipers landed in the Russian-made capsule. Russian space officials quickly surrounded the craft, which performed a perfect upright textbook landing, and erected ladders to begin the process of pulling out the astronauts. The voyage from the space station started 3 -1/2 hours earlier, when it undocked and began a slow, gentle drift away. It made a perfect landing in the still and summery weather at 2:14 pm local time, right on schedule. Commenting on the landing, NASA TV reporter Rob Navias described it as “a bulls eye.”
Source: Deccan Herald
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