May 23, 2011

Stephanie Schierholz Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 stephanie schierholz@nasa gov

Kelly Humphries Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 kelly o humphries@nasa gov

RELEASE: 11-161

EXPEDITION 27 CREW AND CAPSULE LAND SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN

WASHINGTON -- Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft on the Kazakhstan steppe Monday, wrapping up a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station

The trio landed at 10:27 p m (8:27 a m on May 24 local time) at a site southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan Kondratyev, the Soyuz commander, was at the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 5:35 p m EDT from the station's Rassvet module Once the Soyuz was 600 feet away, Nespoli took the first still images and video of a space shuttle docked to the station The orbiting laboratory had to rotate 130 degrees to provide an ideal view for the historic imagery

Russian recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz and adjust to gravity Kondratyev will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow, while NASA's Coleman and Nespoli of the European Space Agency will fly directly to Houston

They launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec 15, 2010 As members of the Expedition 26 and 27 crews, they spent 159 days in space, 157 of them aboard the station They worked on more than 150 microgravity experiments in human research; biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; technology development; and Earth and space sciences

During the trio's mission, the station welcomed a quick succession of international space vehicles including the Japanese Kounotori2, or "white stork," H-II Transfer Vehicle 2; two Russian Progress cargo ships; the European Johannes Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle-2; and space shuttles Discovery and Endeavour on their final flights The shuttles delivered more than 15 tons of supplies necessary for working and living aboard the station, as well as the new cosmic ray detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

A veteran of three space flights, Coleman has logged 179 days in space Nespoli has chalked up 174 days in space on his two flights Kondratyev completed his first space mission

Expedition 28 Commander Andrey Borisenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Ron Garan of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev remain aboard the station

Three new Expedition 28 crew members, Soyuz Commander Sergei Volkov, NASA Flight Engineer Mike Fossum and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa, will launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft at 3:15 p m on June 7 (2:15 a m Baikonur time June 8) and dock to the complex two days later

For more information about the space station, visit:

http://www nasa gov/station

For a schedule of upcoming flights to the station, visit:

http://www nasa gov/stationflights

To view Coleman's and Garan's mission updates on their Twitter pages, visit:

http://www twitter com/Astro_Cady

and

http://www twitter com/Astro_Ron

-end-

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