A Soyuz spacecraft landed safely on the freezing plains of Kazakhstan at 11:11 p.m. ET Friday March 15. It was early Saturday at the landing site, according to Space.com.
The Soyuz space capsule returned home safely with an American astronaut, Kevin Ford and two Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin after a 142-day mission to the International Space Station.
NASA spokesperson Rob Navias confirmed the news of the return of "Expedition 34" in a live commentary.
The Soyuz space capsule, which was originally scheduled to depart from the space station on Thursday was delayed due to extreme weather conditions making it difficult for it to make the journey home. Freezing rain and foggy weather were the main cause of the delay, which improved Friday, March 15. Due to poor visibility and foggy conditions, the search crew had to make changes in the search plan but the international crew was safely recovered.
The international crew orbited the Earth 2,304 times during their nearly five month stay on the orbiting laboratory, according to a report from space.com. They covered about 61 million miles (98,169,984 kilometers) during that period.
Three other international crewmembers, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn continue their mission on the International Space Station after Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin returned home. Ford assigned the commander's role to Hadfield before his return, making him the first Canadian in command of the station, says the report.
According to the news report, two Cosmonauts and an astronaut will be replacing Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin. Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are expected to arrive at the International Space Station March 28, which will be the first crew to reach the orbiting laboratory in one day.
Russia's Soyuz capsules have been a source for NASA to send astronauts to and from the space station since 2011.
Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin had to see the docking of the unmanned Dragon capsule of SpaceX. The Russian cosmonauts were on their first trip to space while Ford was on his second space mission.
