ISS
Crew Safely Returned to Earth
|
European
Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands
is carried in a chair from the Soyuz landing site to an
inflatable medical tent after he and Expedition 8 Commander
Mike Foale and Soyuz Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri successfully
landed in north central Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-3
capsule. Foale and Kaleri completed 195 days in space aboard
the International Space Station, while Kuipers returned
after an 11-day research mission as part of a commercial
agreement between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency.
Bill
Ingalls-Handout / NASA / Reuters |
MISSION CONTROL
CENTRE (Korolev, Moscow Region) (RIA Novosti) – The descent module
from the International Space Station (ISS) softly landed in the
Kazakh steppe early on Friday morning, April 30..
"The
crew endured the descent and the landing well, and is cheerful",
a representative of the space rescue service told the Mission
Control Centre in the Moscow Region.
The descent
module of the Souyz TMA-3 space ship with spacemen on board landed
in the pre-set area on the territory of Kazakhstan. The commander
of the search group watched the module’s descent from a helicopter
and reported to the Mission Control Centre by radio that the module
had landed normally 52 km north-east of Arkalyk populated area.
The eighth
permanent crew of the ISS – US astronaut Michael Foale and Russian
cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri – returned to Earth from a six-month-long
space expedition. An astronaut from the visiting expedition –
representative of the European Space Agency Andre Kuipers – came
back from orbit together with them after a ten-day mission.
ESA
Astronaut Grows Lettuce on ISS
MISSION
CONTROL CENTER (KOROLEV, MOSCOW REGION) (RIA Novosti) – Andre
Kuipers, a Dutch astronaut, who returned to the Earth on Friday,
grew lettuce on the International Space Station (ISS).
As part of
an educational program, Mr. Kuipers and children on earth grew
lettuce simultaneously.
"The
experiment is over," Mr. Kuipers told RIA Novosti.
"This
is highly important both for science and the children on Earth,"
he added.
On April 22
Mr. Kuipers had a 12-minute conference with the European Space
Agency research center. He promised the children that he would
grow a good crop. The Dutch children were happy that the astronaut
had fulfilled their request.
Mr. Kaupers,
who spent ten days on the ISS, planted lettuce seeds on April
19.
As a control
for the experiment, the astronaut and the children had the same
amount and species of seed.