Soyuz Space Capsule Lands In Kazakhstan (VIDEO)

Three astronauts aboard the Soyuz Space Capsule have landed safely in Kazakhstan after a months-long mission at the International Space Station.

Among those who came back were American astronaut Scott Kelly, brother-in-law of Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords; and Russian engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri.

Space.com reports that the crew touched down safely in snowy central Asia at 2 p.m. local time Wednesday.

"The Soyuz landed on its side, but in good shape," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said.

The Soyuz landing took place a week after the Discovery's final landing. With NASA ending its shuttle program, it is the world's only lifeline to the International Space Station.

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Comments

[Erewhon7]

04:37 PM on 03/18/2011

For the person who wrote this article-- "astronaut" is culture specific American term for their space explorers. The correct, culturally sensitive term for Russian space explorer is "cosmonaut."
Yes, yes I know you'll delete this post.
But at least keep it in mind for the future.

[Laxsmi de Potrero]

05:05 PM on 03/17/2011

were they greeted by borat?

[qirin]

09:19 AM on 03/17/2011

Must be a drag to be back on Earth.

[Erewhon7]

01:18 PM on 03/18/2011

Funny, if you meant it as a double entendre.

[cliffhammond]

11:06 PM on 03/16/2011

Sorry, I won't watch commercialized news videos. Good luck to the astronauts.

[factsaboutchina]

09:59 PM on 03/17/2011

You won't watch commercialized news videos but you posts on AOL-Huffington Post?

[Erewhon7]

01:19 PM on 03/18/2011

They are cosmonauts to you, buddy.

[czs5056]

10:12 PM on 03/16/2011

why not land in the ocean? the water provides for a softer landing because more energy is dispersed by displacing the water than hitting solid earth

[Erewhon7]

01:19 PM on 03/18/2011

No oceans nearby. And the one nearby is in ice much of the time.

[mulegino]

06:36 PM on 03/16/2011

Compared to NASA, even retro appears advanced.

Next, I expect a president to come along and challenge the nation to put a man on the moon within ten years.

[czs5056]

10:10 PM on 03/16/2011

if i become the president I will put forth to the nation a call to arms saying "by the time the next decade is out we WILL put a man on Mars and bring him back home safely"

[palefeet]

08:12 AM on 03/18/2011

if i become the next president I will put forth to the nation a call to arms saying "by the time the next decade is out we WILL put the current president on Mars and never bring him back home"

[factsaboutchina]

10:00 PM on 03/17/2011

We never should have left the moon. NASA should have had an unlimited funds for space travel and tech advancement.

[mulegino]

10:44 PM on 03/17/2011

Instead we got Reaganomics, Walmart and public funded sports stadiums for billionaires.

[3echo9]

04:53 PM on 03/16/2011

Glad they made it back safely. Maybe someday the US will be able to put humans in orbit...

[czs5056]

10:11 PM on 03/16/2011

we did for several decades we put men and women into space. this is a temporary stop until the next craft is ready to go

[3echo9]

08:55 AM on 03/17/2011

Yes, I know. It’s embarrassing that we will have no manned spaceflight capabilities for the foreseeable future. Maybe private industry will have some success with it, maybe they won’t. On the plus side it does free up NASA to spend more time on other important missions, like making muslim nations feel good about islam’s contributions to science...