A Russian space capsule landed early Monday in the steppes of northern Kazakhstan, carrying a U.S.-Russian-Italian crew back to Earth from the international space station (ISS). Search-and-rescue helicopters spotted the TMA-5 capsule as it floated toward its designated arrival site about 90 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk and made a soft landing, upright. It had undocked with the orbiting station less than 3 1/2 hours earlier to start hurtling toward Earth. Russian helicopters and planes had been on call, along with a U.S. medical team, near Arkalyk. Engineers followed the capsule's journey through space on a map projected on a large screen at Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow, and periodically communicated with the crew. After the landing, space officials and medical staff traveled to the landing site to welcome Italian Roberto Vittori, Russian Salizhan Sharipov and American Leroy Chiao. Vittori, a European Space Agency astronaut, had spent eight days on the station, while Sharipov and Chiao have been on the orbiting lab since October. Mission Control said Sharipov had reported that the crew were feeling fine. Remaining behind on the station were Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and American astronaut John Phillips, whose six-month mission is slated to include welcoming the first U.S. space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster two years ago.
