Soyuz Crew Lands Safely

By Nancy Atkinson - May 24, 2011 at 12:41 PM UTC | Space Exploration
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The Expedition 27 crew of Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman landed upright in a remote area southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, after more than five months onboard the International Space Station. After undocking fromt he station, Nespoli took the first still images and video of a space shuttle docked to the station. In order to get the best view for the photo-op, the ISS had to rotate 130 degrees.

See a (shaky) video of the landing, below.

Russian recovery teams helped the crew exit the Soyuz and adjust to gravity. Kondratyev will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow, while NASA's Coleman and Nespoli of the European Space Agency will fly directly to Houston.

They launched on a Soyuz back on Dec. 15, 2010, and spent 159 days in space. They worked on more than 150 microgravity experiments in human research; biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; technology development; and Earth and space sciences.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com