Soyuz spacecraft with three ISS crew on board lands in Kazakhstan

google3b03371a029b5580.html ARKALYK, Kazakhstan Apr 30, 2004

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan Friday, bringing three astronauts back from the International Space Station (ISS), despite last minute fears of a glitch.
The Soyuz vessel touched down near the city of Arkalyk at 0011 GMT Friday, with US astronaut Michael Foale, his Russian colleague Alexander Kalery and Andre Kuipers from the Netherlands on board.
The spacecraft's landing was greeted with cheers at the Mission Control Center in Korolyov, near Moscow, where Kuipers' parents, fiancee and two daughters and Foale's wife and son attended the event.
The Soyuz spacecraft had undocked from the ISS just over three hours earlier at 2052 GMT Thursday bringing back Foale and Kalery who had been aboard the ISS since October, as well as Kuipers who had just been in orbit since April 19.
Foale and Kalery carried out 42 scientific experiments while aboard the ISS, Perminov said. Kuipers carried out 21 experiments, 19 of which were successful, said the director of the ESA's manned flights program, Joerg Feustel Bueechel.
The Soyuz landing was broadcast live from Kazakhstan on giant screens at the control center outside Moscow. Foal, Kalery and Kuipers, smiling but a little pale and weakened by the lack of gravity they experienced on the ISS, were helped out of the spacecraft by Russian space rescue service staff.
They then sat in armchairs looking out at the Kazakh steppes and sipped drinks before being helped into waiting helicopters. "Everybody smells very good," joked Foale, who had spent six months in space with Kalery.
The three astronauts arrived a few hours later by plane at Chkalovsky airport near Moscow from where they travelled to the Star City cosmonaut training center for several days of rest and rehabilitation.