Space crew returns safely to Earth

ARKALYK, Kazakhstan – A space capsule carrying a U.S.-Russian-Italian crew landed safely on the steppes of northern Kazakhstan early today following a mission aboard the international space station.

Search-and-rescue helicopters spotted the Russian TMA-5 capsule as it floated toward its designated landing site about 50 miles north of the town of Arkalyk and made a soft, upright landing. It had undocked from the orbiting space station less than 3 1/2 hours earlier.

Space officials and medical staff traveled to the site to welcome American Leroy Chiao, Russian Salizhan Sharipov and Italian Roberto Vittori.

Mission Control said Sharipov had reported that the crew members were feeling fine.

Vittori, a European Space Agency astronaut, had spent eight days on the space station, while Sharipov and Chiao have been aboard since October.

Remaining behind on the space station were Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and American astronaut John Phillips, whose six-month mission is slated to include welcoming the first U.S. space shuttle flight since the Columbia shuttle disaster two years ago.

Russia’s space program has been the only way of getting astronauts to the space station since the Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003, sparking suspension of shuttle flights. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration hopes to renew shuttle flights next month.

Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said that even after the shuttle resumes flying, Russian Soyuz spacecraft will continue to travel to and from the space station about twice a year because they will serve as escape vehicles.

The TMA-5 undocked at 11:44 a.m. Pacific time Sunday and entered the atmosphere about three hours later. Its parachute opened 15 minutes before the scheduled landing time.

Russian space officials avoided a repeat of the space station crew’s return to Earth in May 2003, when the Soyuz capsule went some 250 miles off course due to a computer error.