Soyuz rocket brings U.S. astronaut back to Earth

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri and U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly on board lands near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan, March 16, 2011. / Pool,AP Photo/Dmitry Kostyukov

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely Wednesday in the snowy expanses of central Kazakhstan after spending five months on the International Space Station.

The Soyuz capsule carrying Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka landed at 1:53 p.m. (0753 GMT) about 30 miles from the northern Kazakh city of Arkalyk.

Kelly returns to earth just as his twin brother Mark, husband of wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, prepares to take part in the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour's final mission in April.

The capsule came back to harsh conditions, including a stiff wind that blew it on its side and rolled it 25 yards from its touchdown point through fresh snow.

Rob Navias, a spokesman for the U.S. space agency NASA on the scene, described conditions as "like a scene from the North Pole."

The space travelers were bundled into blankets after being pulled from the capsule, then placed in reclining stretchers as they slowly acclimated to the planet's gravity after months of weightlessness.

The capsule landed about 3 1/2 hours after undocking from the ISS. After hurtling through space, it deployed a parachute about 15 minutes before touchdown, slowing its speed from 500 mph to about 180 mph.

A second parachute slowed its descent to 16 mph. Then with the ground just a few yards away, six engines on the capsule's bottom were fired, bringing it to a gentle landing in a powdery cloud of fresh snow.

The first out was Kaleri, who has now spent a total of 770 days in space over five flights, making him the second most experienced space flier in history after compatriot Sergei Krikalyov. Navias said Kaleri smiled and winked at him as he was lifted out.

Skripochka and Kelly also appeared to be in good shape.

"Scott Kelly is looking remarkably well," Navias said.

In a break with usual practice, search-and-recovery personnel dispensed with the ritual of taking the returning astronauts to inflatable medical tents for a checkup and instead loaded them directly onto all-terrain vehicles.

"The search and recovery team have decided it's too cold, it's too wintery, it's too Arctic out here in terms of the overall conditions," Navias said.

During his time on the space station, Kelly ran a series of challenges on his Twitter feed in which his followers had to identify locations on earth shown in photographs taken from the orbiting laboratory.

The final photo posted was of snow-covered Kazakhstan.

Russian Dmitry Kondratyev, Italy's Paolo Nespoli and American Catherine Coleman remain aboard the space station; they are to return to earth in about three months.

[keenefx]

NASA is an aging bureaucratic mess that works in slow motion. It is in fact the private or Space X companies that will propel the U.S. truly into the 21st century, Moon, Mars and beyond...good riddance to the shuttle.

[Cyber998]

I hope the bureaucracy can be decreased, however I hate to see so how much money is currently being thrown at one step of the space race when the Soyuz spacecraft already does the job cheaply and reliably, without a single fatality since an early model in 1971. It's proven itself safe, unlike any current alternative.

The ESA's Automated Transport Vehicle can handle putting most cargo in space and resupplying the ISS. I'd rather see NASA concentrate on the next generation of challenges like establishing a base on the moon or developing a manned inter-planetary spacecraft to reach Mars.

[Socialization]

Damn Obama for canceling the Shuttle program and paying his Socialist Brothers to taxi us back and forth.

History will name Obama the idiot that killed the US Space programs and let Russia take the lead.

I really hate him for this among other things...

[Cyber998]

The decision was made by NASA during the time of the Bush administration, based on timetables drawn up back in the 80's and 90's.

But hey, don't let facts get in the way of hate.

[roblearns]

could President Kennedy imagine being 13 trillion in debt, while Russia had paid all its sovereign debt off and is actually a creditor nation?

Cooperate where you can, be efficient, save money, because in the long run, wise financial decisions are how you become a world leader. China understands this. Russia learned that lesson after the fall of the Soviet Union - thought they are still decades off from recovery, they are on that journey.

I wish we could learn that lesson now, but it seems we have to take a great fall first, then we'll figure it out.

[jjoe57]

A better way must be found to bring astronauts back from the space station (other than by parachute into Siberia). I thought we had a better way, called the space shuttle. Why in this world is it being retired!