TARGET 111214

Coming home from the
International Space Station (ISS)

Rescuers circling the just-landed capsule

The Soyuz TMA-02M capsule carrying three astronauts from Expedition 28 to the International Space Station landed safely in Arkalyk, northern Kazakhstan. The astronauts, Satoshi Furukawa from Japan, Sergey Volkov from Russia, and Michael E. Fossum from the U.S.A. were returning to Earth after being on board the ISS for over five months. The landing took place on 22 November, 2011.

In the picture above, the capsule had just landed and rescuers quickly circled the capsule in order to retrieve the astronauts, who could not get out of the capsule on their own.

Getting the capsule upright

The three astronauts rode to Earth in a capsule which doesn't look like it would hold even one.

The three astronauts in the capsule

Since the landing was to be a "hard" one (not in water, but on hard land), the majority of the space inside that tiny capsule was taken up with padding, air bags, and other protective measures to keep the astronauts from being hurt in the landing. Although the last part of the descent was slowed by a parachute (see top photo), the impact of the landing was still extremely harsh, especially on bodies that had been in a weightless environment for so long. ^{See note 1, below}

After the astronauts are pulled from the capsule...

...they are wrapped warmly to prevent shock in the cold Kazakhstani air.....

...given a quick and seemingly pleasant medical check by a pretty nurse.....

...and of course, posed for a group news photo.

But even after the five-month long trip, they can't go home, yet. There are medical tests of all kinds, greetings by the presidents of their individual countries, endless reports, etc. But even before that, they get to enjoy the warm hospitality of the Kazakhstani people, at a feast in their honor.

Where each astronaut is given a Matryoshka, a Russian "nesting doll", hand painted with his picture as the outside doll and scenes from the space station on the inner ones.

Michael Fossum shows the "nesting doll" painted to honor his flight into space.

^{Note 1} Because some of the more advanced viewers will probably pick up on this and could be confused by it, an explanation of the use of the word, "weightless" instead of "gravityless" is in order. The earth's gravitational pull on the space station is what keeps it from flying off into space. So, even in orbit, the astronauts are still in gravity. But the centrifugal force of the station as it "slings" around the earth in its orbit equals the pull of gravity, and the astronauts therefore are not pulled to the earth nor slung away from it, resulting in a condition of weightlessness.

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NASA Spaceflight website
Russian Space Website
English Russia Website
Wikipedia