Astronaut, cosmonauts safely return to Earth

CAPE CANAVERAL – An American and two Russians made a safe return to Earth from the International Space Station late Friday, flying a Soyuz spacecraft into fog for a day-late, weather-delayed landing in Kazakhstan.

With Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitzskiy at the controls, the Soyuz departed thespace station at 7:43 p.m. EDT and backed off to a point 7.5 miles away. Also onboard: U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford and cosmonaut Evgeny Tarelkin.

Fog and frozen rain prevented a planned landing Thursday. Ideal conditions prevail most of the day Friday, but an hour before the 11:05 p.m. EDT return, thick clouds and fog rolled into the landing zone north of Arkalyk again.

Some Russian search and rescue helicopters were unable to make it to the landing area and were recalled to Arakalyk or the central Asian city of Kustanai.

The spacecraft blazed through the atmosphere – its heat shield protecting the crew protected from temperatures of about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit -- as some rescuers rushed to the landing zone in all-terrain vehicles.

Winds were relatively light – about seven miles per hour. Temperatures will be extremely cold: 15 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill factor of four degrees Fahrenheit.

But in the end, the Soyuz spacecraft landed safely. Recovery forces descended on the crew capsule and began work to extract the returning space explorers.

The landing took place at 9:05 a.m. Saturday local time in Kazakhstan, or about one-hour and 23 minutes after sunrise there.

Outgoing station skipper Ford and his two cosmonaut colleagues blasted off at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 23. They arrived at the space station on Oct. 25.

They lived and worked aboard the complex for 142 days, and chalked up 144 days in space on the 34th expedition to the station, which has been continuously staffed since a first crew boarded in November 2000.

Still onboard the station: Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the station, U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and second-generation cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. His father, Yuri Romanenko, tallied 430 days in space during his career as a cosmonaut.

An American and two Russians are scheduled to blast off for the station on March 28, making the first single-day trip to the complex. Normally it takes two days to reach the outpost, but Russian flight controllers have developed new trajectories that will make single-day trips a reality.

The crew coming up includes U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy, veteran cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, and first-time space flier Alexander Misurkin.

Cassidy, who served as a mission specialist on a 2009 shuttle mission to the station, is only the second former Navy SEAL to fly in space. The first, William Shepherd, was the commander of the first expedition to the international outpost.