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ISS Expedition 9 Crew Finally Returns to Earth

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the sorry-we're-late dept.

neutron_p writes "International Space Station Expedition 9 crewmembers, Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA Science Officer Mike Fincke landed on target in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 8:36 p.m. EDT Saturday after 188 days in space."

7 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Health? by (SM)+Spacemonkey · · Score: 1, Interesting

    First congradulations and glad you are back safe. However I am curious as to their state of health. Space has no gravity, and the environment provides little resistence for your muscles. I remember reading somewhere that your muscles literally waste away from lack of use in space. Since they spent a lengthy time up in space, how are they finding the adjustment to earth gravity again? Is this health issue a barrier to long space flight?

    1. Re:Health? by henni16 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      AFAIK they have something like Hometrainers and stuff up there to slow that effect down - or they had to power their batteries by cycling ;-)

    2. Re:Health? by jacksonj04 · · Score: 0, Interesting

      According to one of the astronauts who went up on a service mission then lectured us for an hour, they need to excercise regularly going, whilst there, and coming back. The machines are pretty much your standard gym equipment with a few tweaks to let it work in a weightless environment.

      Interestingly, before spacewalks the spacewalkers must excercise for 2 hours whilst breathing pure oxygen to prevent the bends.

      --
      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
  2. Good Job by Space_Soldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I guess it is good to be back. Now, they must get used to Earth again. I wonder if the 4 hours of exercise per day they must do in orbit is enough for them to walk on Earth without feeling exausted.

  3. Re:US-Russian Cooperation by lxt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "At this point, the International Space Station (ISS) is just a photo opportunity for the press" Couldn't agree more - in an article yesterday in a UK broadsheet (might have been the Times, can't really remember) it stated "the new crew will be researching AIDS vaccine"...my immediate thought was that the crew would probably be a bit too busy trying to repair the station, and this was just an attempt to get Joe Public to believe the ISS was at the "cutting edge" of research...

  4. In other space related news... by praedictus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Brazil launched its first successful rocket Saturday from their Alcantarao base in Maranhao. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3948531.stm The two stage rocket, VSB-30, reached a maximum height of 250 km Good to see their program getting back on its feet after last years disaster http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/brazil_failur e_030822.htm which killed 21 of their top people

    --
    Watashi wa chikyubutsurigakusha desu.
  5. Re:What happened to the oxygen generator? by igny · · Score: 3, Interesting

    According to russian news sites, they fixed it. The culprit was a valve in the system which vents the H2 overboard.

    --
    In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra