Part of Expedition 31 Crew Returns to Earth

Half of the Expedition 31 crew that manned the International Space Station (ISS) returned to Earth on Sunday, July 1, after spending six and a half months aboard the orbital outpost. The spacecraft that carried them landed perfectly in the wide steppes of Kazakhstan.

The crew returned home aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft, which was also used to carry them to orbit in the first place. The Russian-built capsule landed at 08:14 am GMT (2:14 pm local time), and was promptly retrieved by rescue crews.

As the image to the left will confirm, the space capsule had a picture-perfect landing, with the vehicle being deposited on the ground slowly, without being dragged about by its parachute. In all, the capsule spent 193 days in space.

Its crew was made up of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andre Kuipers and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, both former flight engineers for Expedition 31, and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, of the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos), the former Commander of the first leg of the expedition.

The mission undocked from the Rassvet module at 14:47 pm GMT, on Saturday, June 30. The ISS is now manned by a three-astronaut crew, in anticipation of the July 15 launch of the Soyuz TMA-05M.

The spacecraft will carry RosCosmos' Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, all of whom will be flight engineers for Expedition 32. The current expedition is scheduled to conclude in mid-July.

Currently, aboard the station there are Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka (RosCosmos) and flight engineers Joseph M. Acaba (NASA) and Sergei Revin (RosCosmos).

“During their expedition, the crew supported more than 200 scientific investigations involving more than 400 researchers around the world. The studies ranged from integrated investigations of the human cardiovascular and immune systems to fluid, flame and robotic research,” a NASA press release states.

Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers spent 191 days aboard the ISS, during which they participated in retrieving the first privately built spacecraft that was allowed to dock to the station, the Dragon capsule built by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX).

“On June 25, Pettit celebrated achieving one cumulative year in space, combining his time in orbit on Expedition 6, Expedition 30/31 and the STS-126 space shuttle Endeavour flight to the station in November 2008,” NASA adds.

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Via: Part of Expedition 31 Crew Returns to Earth