On Monday, the Russian capsule Soyuz made its landing on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan. It wrapped up the four-month mission to the International Space Station and delivered the three astronauts from their mission. The capsule, carrying two Russian cosmonauts, Gennady Pedalka and Sergei Revin, and U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba, landed at around 8:53 local time.
“Bulls-eye landing,” NASA spokesman Rob Navias said as the capsule touched down.
The three astronauts’ 125-day expedition in space began on May 14, 2012, and the three arrived at the Internation Space Station on May 17. Eight days later, SpaceX’s robotic Dragon capsule docked with the station, becoming the first private vehicle to dock with the orbiting station. The astronauts’ mission included three spacewalks and robotic cargo ship arrivals. Padalka performed a six-hour spacewalk in order to relocate a crane, launch a small science satellite, and install micrometeoroid shields on the space station’s command module. In addition, crewmates Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide conducted a spacewalk to replace a power unit on the station’s truss; they used such simple tools as a toothbrush in order to fix a major problem in the station.
This mission was shorter than the usual six months because a new spaceship had to be prepared after the initial Soyuz craft cracked during pressure tests, leading to launch delays.
Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide still remain in orbit and will be joined by Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitsky, and Yevgeny Tarelkin.
