Two returning astronauts and a cosmonaut appeared healthy and in good spirits after an 11:25 p.m. EDT landing on the Kazakhstan steppe. "This crew, after 163 days in space, is doing just great," said Rob Navias, a NASA TV commentator.
Sitting in a reclining chair on what appeared to be a sunny, balmy Wednesday morning on plains near the town of Arkalyk, Russian Oleg Kotov, the former commander of International Space Station's Expedition 23 crew, waved, pumped his first and gave a thumbs up sign to cameras.
Soon he was biting into a fresh green apple.
Soichi Noguchi received a congratulatory handshake from Koichi Wakata, his predecessor as a long-duration resident on the station from Japan.
Last to be pulled from a Soyuz spacecraft that had rolled on its side was American T.J. Creamer, who was greeted by Peggy Whitson, chief of NASA's astronaut office, and Mike Suffredini, manager of the agency's space station program. The three crew members clapsed hands in triumph.
The crew, swaddled in blankets, mostly remained still as their bodies adjusted to the pull of gravity for the first time in nearly six months, since their launch from Kazakhstan before Christmas. Doctors peformed medical checkups.
After flights in separate helicopters back to Karaganda for a welcome ceremony, the three crew members were to split up. Kotov was to return to Moscow, with Creamer and Noguchi flying back to Houston.
The crew undocked from the space station a little over three hours before landing. They'll be replaced on the station by a new crew of three scheduled to launch in about two weeks.
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