Space Station Trio Lands Safely in Kazakhstan

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Sep 16, 2011, 12:36 ET

HOUSTON, Sept. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three International Space Station crew members safely returned to Earth Thursday, Sept. 15, wrapping up a six-month mission of research and exploration.

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NASA's Ron Garan, Expedition 28 commander Andrey Borisenko and flight engineer Alexander Samokutyaev, both of the Russian Federal Space Agency, landed their Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 11:59 p.m. EDT (9:59 a.m. in Kazakhstan). The trio, which arrived at the station on April 6, had been scheduled to land on Sept. 8, but that was postponed because of the Aug. 24 loss of the Progress 44 cargo ship.

Before leaving the station, Borisenko handed over command to NASA's Mike Fossum, who leads Expedition 29. He and Flight Engineers Satoshi Furukawa, of Japan, and Sergei Volkov, of Russia, are conducting research and maintenance aboard the station. The launch date for the remaining Expedition 29 crew members, NASA's Dan Burbank, and Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov, is under review.

Fossum is blogging about his experiences aboard the space station at:

http://blogs.nasa.gov

For more information about Expedition 29 and the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA