Apr 24 2005
From The Space Library
The Expedition 10 crew, American astronaut Leroy Chiao and Russian cosmonaut Salizhan S. Sharipov, returned to Earth from the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-5 after almost 193 days in space. Together with Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, who had conducted scientific experiments at the ISS after his arrival on 17 April with Expedition 11, the crew landed on target in north-central Kazakhstan. Although the crew and recovery team encountered no major problems, weeks of heavy snow and rain had caused flooding in the steppes, complicating the recovery. Only three of the 10 recovery helicopters were able to land in the wet conditions. During their mission, Chiao and Sharipov had maintained ISS systems and conducted scientific research. They had replaced critical hardware in the Joint Quest Airlock, repaired U.S. spacesuits, completed two spacewalks to prepare the ISS for the arrival of a new European cargo spacecraft during the next year, and submitted a scientific research paper on the use of ultrasound in space. Chiao had voted in the U.S. presidential election the previous November, the first astronaut to do so in space. Vittori had spent 10 days in space, eight of them aboard the ISS, and had performed 22 experiments, including tests of astronaut fatigue, research on the durability of components of microsatellites, research into the electromagnetic waves that emanate from Earth and may be related to earthquakes, and experiments growing shoots as a potential food source for people in orbit. (NASA, International Space Station Status Report SS05-020a, 24 April 2005, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/apr/HQ_ss05020a_ISS_status_report.html (accessed 29 June 2009); Shamil Zumatov for Reuters, “Russian, U.S., Italian Space Crew Return to Earth,” 25 April 2005; Agence-France Presse, “Astronauts Home Safely from International Space Station,” 26 April 2005.)
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