Steppes still flooded but Soyuz crew lands safely

A russian Soyuz capsule bumped down on the Kazakh steppe early on Monday morning, bringing a Russian, an American and an Italian astronaut s...

A russian Soyuz capsule bumped down on the Kazakh steppe early on Monday morning, bringing a Russian, an American and an Italian astronaut safely back to Earth from the International Space Station. The landing, under a nearly full moon two hours before daybreak, was complicated by flooding on the steppe, a flat featureless expanse that covers much of the Central Asian state.

Just three of 10 search and recovery helicopters were able to land in the waterlogged conditions, following weeks of heavy snow and rain, to extract the space crew.

Mission control outside Moscow said there had been no major problems. ‘‘Everything went as planned. The Soyuz TMA-5 landed on its side,’’ a spokesman was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency.

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The craft touched down near Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan on Monday at 2.08 am. Moscow time.

The landing involved the cramped Soyuz capsule unfurling a large orange parachute after entering the atmosphere and firing a final burst of rockets to dampen the impact as it landed on the steppe.

Russian Salizhan Sharipov and American Leroy Chiao, who have manned the station since last October, returned with Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, who spent 10 days in space, having accompanied the two-man crew that relieved Sharipov and Chiao.

Once extracted from Soyuz, the three were flown by helicopter to a disused airport at Arkalyk, where Russia’s space agency set up a hospital tent to check their health before a further helicopter and airliner flight to Moscow.

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Soyuz rockets have been the sole means of sending crews to the International Space Station since the US shuttle Columbia disintegrated in February 2003 over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.

NASA last week pushed back the earliest possible launch for the first space shuttle mission since the Columbia crash to allow more time to review safety assessments and design changes. The US agency now plans its first shuttle flight on May 22 at the earliest, in a window that runs to June 3.

Vittori performed 22 experiments on board the ISS, including tests on astronaut fatigue, the durability of components of microsatellites, research into electromagnetic waves emanating from Earth that may be linked to quakes, and the growing of shoots as a potential source of food for those in orbit. —Reuters