Published October 25th, 2004
ARKALYK, Kazakhstan (AP) — A Russian-U.S. crew returned to
Earth from the international space station Sunday in a pinpoint
landing on the Kazakhstan steppe, and NASA’s chief said the
United States wanted to continue the joint relationship on future
missions to Mars.
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Russian rockets and the nonreusable Soyuz space craft have been
the only way NASA can get to the space station and back since the
U.S. shuttle fleet was grounded after the Columbia burned up on
re-entry in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The bell-shaped Soyuz TMA-4, carrying Russian cosmonauts Gennady
Padalka and Yuri Shargin and American astronaut Mike Fincke,
parachuted down to the landing site, some 55 miles north of the
Kazakh town of Arkalyk, at 4:36 a.m.
The return marked Padalka’s and Fincke’s first
experience with gravity after a six-month stay on the orbital
outpost. Shargin spent eight days on the station after arriving
Oct. 16 with the station’s new two-man crew, Russian Salizhan
Sharipov and American Leroy Chiao.
Search crews took just 14 minutes to reach the Soyuz capsule
after its landing, compared with the average 90-minute search after
nighttime arrivals, said Vasily Tsibliyev, head of the
Cosmonauts’ Training Center at Star City, outside Moscow.
The Soyuz’s return flight “was another successful
effort for a continuous presence on the international
station,” O’Keefe said at Russian mission control
outside Moscow.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe praised the Russian space
agency workers, especially the helicopter-based search and rescue
crews, for their “tremendous professionalism.”
He also said the United States wants to further that cooperation
by drawing on the Russian space program’s extensive
experience in long duration flights when NASA embarks on missions
beyond the moon and to Mars.
“The first international partner we see to collaborate
with most is our colleagues Rosaviakosmos, given the vast
experience they have had in long duration space flights,”
O’Keefe said. Rosaviakosmos is the Russian space agency.
Russian cosmonauts own all the space endurance records, set on
the Mir space station. Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov spent 438 days
aboard the Mir for the all-time record. Earlier, Vladimir Titov and
Musa Manarov spent 366 days in space.
The longest American stay in space is 196 days by astronauts
Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch in 2001 and 2002, aboard the
international space station.
After being helped out of the capsule by the search team, the
three fliers sat in chairs, sipping hot drinks and bundling in
blankets, and then underwent brief medical checks in a nearby tent
before flying to Star City.
The Soyuz spacecraft, the workhorse of Russia’s
cash-strapped space program, boasts a stellar safety record.
But minor glitches occasionally occur. Earlier this month, the
crew arriving at the space station had to turn off the autopilot,
apply the brakes and manually connect the Soyuz to the docking
point after an unidentified problem prompted the craft to approach
the station at dangerously high speed.
In May 2003, the first time American astronauts returned on the
Soyuz, a computer malfunction sent the crew on a dive so steep
their tongues rolled back in their mouths. The crew landed so far
off target that more than two hours elapsed before rescuers knew
the men were safe.
Now the Soyuz is outfitted with satellite phones and a global
positioning satellite system. Russia also requests that the former
Soviet republic of Kazakhstan close off a large area of its
airspace before the scheduled landing.
NASA has said that shuttles should be flying again by early
summer.
