Astronauts With The Olympic Torch Return To Earth

Russia's Soyuz space ball landed confidently in Kazakhstan on Monday, recurring three astronauts and the quaint Olympic torch to Grope after its first always spacewalk. The Russian Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft landed at going on for 8:49 a.m. meet time (02:49 GMT) on the Kazakh steppe, dependable three hours after undocking from the Global Breathing space Identify amid Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin, the US's Karen Nyberg and Italy's Luca Parmitano on administration. Soon after landing, Yurchikhin handed the torch to legislative body of the Russian Olympic ruling body. The "space torch" ghost be recycled to light the central Olympic flash during the introduction of the Sochi Freezing Olympics on February 7. A spokesman for the forecast control center rumored the get down were piercing during the stock and landing and were "in a careful setting" after using up about six months in space.

Three Trip up 37 get down members hold landed after 166 days in space, finishing a 70.3 million mile forecast straddling manager than 2,600 orbits of the Grope in the same way as their business to the Global Breathing space Identify in May.

Soyuz Boss Yurchikhin undocked the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft from aft end the Zvezda roll direction at 6:26 p.m. EST Sunday as the station soared 262 miles over northeast Mongolia. The deorbit rocket at 8:55 p.m. slowed the Soyuz for its just dressed in the Earth's force and its parachute-assisted landing.

The Soyuz TMA-09M is seen moments in advance it lands in Kazakstan amid the get down of Trip up 37. Prophecy Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

The undocking dotted the end of Trip up 37 and the nudge of Trip up 38 under the regime of Oleg Kotov. Yurchikhin passed the circle of the station over to Kotov during a alter of regime situation Sunday in advance he, Nyberg and Parmitano boarded their Soyuz and the hatches between the spacecraft were stopped up at 3:09 p.m.

The Olympic torch within at the space station Thursday aboard the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft carrying three new get down members - Trip up 38 Recoil Engineers Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata. To bear their outer shell, Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano relocated their Soyuz spacecraft on Nov. 1 from the Rassvet direction someplace it had been docked in the same way as May 28 over to Zvezda. The outer shell of Mastracchio, Wakata and Tyurin dotted the first time in the same way as October 2009 that nine workforce hold served together aboard the station weak spot the apparition of a space shuttle.

Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin amid the Olympic torch in his hands after a ball of the

Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft under his regime lands in Kazakhstan. Credit: wunitv.com

Two Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky, took the torch dressed in blunt space on November 9 for an hour-long photo and video imply as unfinished of an roughly six-hour normal observance spacewalk. The torch remained murky out of the flight for safety measures reasons.

Kotov and Ryazansky ghost control the ISS forecast together amid Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who carried the torch onto the circle on November 7.

The Olympic torch has been sent dressed in space in advance - for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics and Sydney Games in 2000 - but has never in advance been busy sheath the spacecraft.

Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Recoil Hatch Mike Hopkins, who launched and docked to the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-10M way on Sept. 25, ghost reinstate to Grope on Summary 12. Their neglect ghost mean the seed of Trip up 39 under the regime of Wakata, the first Japan Aerospace Investigation Say-so astronaut entrusted amid that status.

Credit: NASA, RIA Novosti