Post date: May 14, 2013 7:20:18 AM
R Reports - The first Canadian astronaut to command the International Space Stationlanded safely in Kazakhstan with two crewmates on Tuesday (May 14), wrapping up a five-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
A Soyuz capsule under an orange parachute raised clouds of dust as it ignited an engine to cushion its landing some 150 km (90 miles) southeast of the town ofZhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan at 8:31 a.m. (0231 GMT), Russian television showed in a live broadcast.
About 3-1/2 hours earlier, space station commander Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko departed the 100-billion U.S. dollar orbital outpost as it sailed 255 miles (410 km) overeastern Mongolia.The crew's return to Earth comes on the 40th anniversary of the launch of the firstU.S. space station, Skylab. Three crews lived and worked on the relatively short-lived Skylab between May 1973 and February 1974.
The project helped NASA prepare for in-flight research aboard the space shuttles and the International Space Station, which was constructed in orbit beginning in 1998.