ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-02M Mission patch.
Nov. 22, 2011
Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov landed their Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 9:26 p.m. EST Monday (8:26 a.m. Tuesday Kazakhstan time), wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month mission of research and exploration.
Image above: The Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft carrying Expedition 29 Commander Mike Fossum, Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa undocks from the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA TV.
Volkov was at the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 6 p.m. EST from the International Space Station.
Soyuz TMA-02M Re-entry Seen From Station (ISS)
Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov arrived at the orbital complex June 9 aboard Soyuz TMA-02M, joining the Expedition 28 crew as flight engineers. Expedition 29 began and Fossum took command when Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineers Ron Garan and Alexander Samokutyaev departed the station in September. He, Furukawa and Volkov spent 165 days aboard the complex and 167 days in orbit.
Soyuz TMA-02M landing
The station now is occupied by Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin. A new trio of Expedition 30 flight engineers – NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers – is slated to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan next month aboard Soyuz TMA-03M.
Soyuz TMA-02M capsule has landed in Kazakhstan
Watch the station crew's Thanksgiving message: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=120969811
Send a postcard to the station crew: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/postcard/
For more information about ISS, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/
Images, Videos, Text, Credits: Roscosmos PAO / Roscosmos TV / NASA / NASA TV.
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