WASHINGTON, DC - March 18, 2010
-- Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Max Suraev
landed their Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft on the steppes of Kazakhstan
Thursday, wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month stay aboard the
International Space Station.
Suraev, the Soyuz commander, was at
the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 4:03 a.m. EDT from the
station's Poisk module. The duo landed at 7:24 a.m. at a site northeast
of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk.
Working in frigid temperatures,
Russian recovery teams were on hand at the landing site to help the
crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and readjust to gravity. The crew members
will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City,
outside of Moscow.
Williams and Suraev launched aboard the Soyuz
TMA-16 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept.
30, 2009. As members of the Expedition 21 and 22 crews, they spent 167
days on the station, presiding over the completion of the complex's
U.S. segment.
The astronauts supported two space shuttle flights
and helped install the Tranquility module, the cupola viewing port and
a second Russian docking module. Scientific research aboard the station
continued to ramp up with the increase in available crew time and
laboratory facilities.
Williams now has logged 362 total days in
space, placing him fourth on the all-time U.S. list of long-duration
space travelers. Peggy Whitson, who has spent 377 days in space, tops
that list.
The station now is occupied by Expedition 23
Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers Soichi Noguchi and T.J.
Creamer. A new trio of Expedition 23 flight engineers -- Alexander
Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko -- will launch
from the Baikonour Cosmodrome on April 2 and join the current station
crew with a docking on April 4.
For information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station