A capsule carrying two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut touched down on the grassy plains of central Asia as Thanksgiving Day neared an end in the United States. The 11:46 p.m. EST landing in wintry weather in Kazakhstan marked the end of a 163-day voyage in space for Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin, who launched June 15 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and returned in the same Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft.
The Soyuz shed two unneeded modules at 11:20 p.m. EST and the three Expedition 25 crew members soon began feeling the effects of the atmosphere at an altitude of 63 miles, with g-loads exceeded four times Earth's gravity.
Four parachutes deployed to slow the descent through hazy, overcast skies and small jets fired just before touchdown to soften the charred spacecraft's thud against the ground, after which it rolled on its side.
All Soyuz systems performed as planned during a roughly three-hour trip home from the station that began with a station undocking at 8:23 p.m. EST.
Russian and NASA search-and-rescue teams that staged in the area and monitored the descent planned to quickly reach the capsule, cut away parachutes and open the hatch, exposing the crew members to a blast of below-freezing air.
"What will that first breath be like when the hatch opens on Earth?" Wheelock said in a Twitter message before departing the station. "I can only imagine..."
The crew typically is pulled from the spacecraft, wrapped in blankets and immediately given medical attention. Later, they'll fly to the town of Kustanai for a welcome home ceremony.
Three Expedition 26 crew members remain on the space station: commander Scott Kelly and flight engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka.
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