Korolyov: A Soyuz
landing module carrying Gennady Padalka (Russia), Michael
Barratt (NASA) and Canadian space tourist Guy Laliberte have
touched down Kazakh steppe.
The International Space Station (ISS) 20th crew
touched down the Kazakh steppe at 8:32 am yesterday.
Padalka and Barratt spent 198 days in orbit and the
space tourist had a brief mission on October 2-11.
The crew had a busy schedule: the astronauts received
two space shuttles, two Progress spaceships and HTV, the first
space freighter built by Japan.
There were two spacewalks, which tested Orlan-MK
spacesuits and prepared the ISS for docking with Russia`s MIM
2 research module due in November.
Padalka redocked the Soyuz TMA-14 from Zvezda to Pirs
so that Zvezda could receive the Progress M-67 freighter.
Another goal of the redocking was a more convenient
ISS configuration for orbit corrections.
Padalka and Barratt held plenty of experiments,
including 42 planned by Russia, and did a number of commercial
jobs.
Samples, experiment files and substrates cultivated in
space were brought back to the Earth, while Laliberte
delivered photographs and video recordings done onboard the
ISS.
Bureau Report
