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Soyuz Capsule Lands Safely

Posted by samzenpus on from the safe-and-sound dept.

An anonymous reader writes in with news that the astronauts who helped dock the first privately owned spacecraft with the ISS have returned safely to earth in a Russian Soyuz capsule. "A Russian Soyuz capsule landed on the Kazakh steppes on Sunday, safely delivering a trio of astronauts who helped to dock the first privately owned spacecraft during a six-month stint on the International Space Station. The descent capsule, carrying Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, touched down with its parachute in a cloud of dust at 0814 GMT. The crew left the space station early on Sunday after serving 183 days in orbit, often sharing their experiences with the public via blogs and Twitter. At the end of May, the crew released Space Exploration Technologies' unmanned Dragon cargo, which arrived as part of a test flight and was the first privately owned spaceship to reach the $100 billion orbital outpost, which is a 15-nation project. Three other ISS crew members - Russia's Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba - will remain in orbit."

4 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Don Pettit's Videos by Hadlock · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm going to miss Don Pettit's videos. 1lb instruction booklet on how to use legos for static electricity science video that cost $10,000 to put in space? Toss it off screen, because legos were meant to be built with creativity, not instructions! Gotta love that guy. Never too serious, always "holy shit! I'm in space!". Really brings some excitement and interest to spaceflight, which the rest of NASA seems to smother.
     
    In case you missed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0Ei6h3LVb0

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  2. Re:I wonder how much the Soyuz return trip cost? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Informative

    Soyuz launch costs ~$70 million (which, so far as I can, see, includes any recovery costs - they'd be dwarfed by the launch, anyway). Wikipedia says that Falcon 9 launch to LEO is $50-55 million.

  3. Don Petit's Blog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Don's blog started during training for this mission - it's been a great read.

    Suggest you start at the beginning and take it a post or two at a time. If you never wanted to be an astronaut you will by the time you're done.

    http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/newui/blog/viewpostlist.jsp?blogname=letters

  4. resident artist by rbrausse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was impressed by Andre Kuiper's images - he really made space as grant as I ever imagined it.

    His Flickr stream is the greatest way to waste time.