Accessibility links

Breaking News

3 ISS Astronauts Return to Earth


The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft lands with three members of Expedition 31 from the International Space Station in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, July 1, 2012.
The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft lands with three members of Expedition 31 from the International Space Station in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, July 1, 2012.
Three astronauts from the International Space Station have arrived back on Earth.

A Soyuz space capsule, slowed by a parachute, touched down in Kazakhstan Sunday afternoon with members of Expedition 31 from the ISS. The Soyuz undocked from the Space Station earlier Sunday.

The astronauts, including American Don Petit, Russian Oleg Kononenko and Dutchman Andre Kuipers were returning home after completing their mission of more than six months aboard the orbiting space station.

The astronauts were attended to by support teams after taken from the Russian built space capsule. Three other astronauts remain on the ISS.

Russia is currently the only nation transporting crews to and from the space station since the United States retired its space shuttle program in July.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG