Soyuz Capsule Followed 'Ballistic' Trajectory On Re-entry

It's good to be home... especially after the trip they had. Expedition 16 crewmembers Commander Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, along with South Korean 'tourinaut' So-yeon Yi, spent most of the weekend recovering from their harrowing return to Earth early Saturday.

Their Soyuz TMA-11 capsule landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan around 0430 EDT Saturday... nearly 300 miles away from the anticipated landing site. Furthermore, the capsule reentered Earth's atmosphere in a steeper-than-normal, "ballistic" trajectory, which subjected the crew to forces of up to 10 g's.

Fortunately, all three were reported to be in good condition after their re-entry and landing. Ground crews reached the capsule about 45 minutes later than planned, due to the unexpected reentry course.

It's the second return in a row of a Soyuz that didn't go as planned, reports The Associated Press. Last October's return of Expedition 15 also followed a steeper-than-expected reentry path, as did a May 2003 mission. Both of those incidents were attributed to technical glitches in the TMA-11's fully automated return programming.

The Expedition 16 crewmembers undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from the International Space Station at 0106 EDT Saturday. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz and begin its descent toward the Earth took place at 0340, according to NASA.

When they landed, Whitson (shown at right) and Malenchenko had spent 192 days in space on their Expedition 16 flight, 190 of them on the station.

Whitson, 48, returned from her second mission to the station; she served as a flight engineer on the Expedition 5 crew, launching June 5, 2002, and returning to Earth December 7 after almost 185 days in space.

She landed Saturday with a total of 377 days in space, more than any other US spacefarer.

FMI: www.nasa.gov