3 Astronauts Land in Kazakhstan After 144 Days in Space

After having their Thursday journey back to Earth delayed due to bad weather, the three astronauts landed on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan today (Saturday, March 16).

According NASA, only two of 12 search and rescue helicopters were allowed to land at the touchdown site because of heavy clouds and fog. This meant, instead of being placed in an inflatable medical tent for checks, the astronauts were taken fairly quickly to one of the helicopters. With temperatures well below freezing, the astronauts – the American Kevin Ford, and two Russians, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin – were bundled during a quick check out, as shown in the live coverage footage below.

The three men left to ISS on October 23 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan. They spent 144 days in space travelling a total of 98 million kilometers.

As SCW reported earlier, the crew members had been scheduled to return on Friday, but the landing was postponed by a day because of the freezing rain and fog whipping Central Asia on Thursday.

Meanwhile their replacement is getting ready to blast off.

In Russia another three men team said goodbye to their families ahead of a planned March 28th launch.

Speaking in a press conference, Commander Pavel Vinogradov, who will be leading the next mission expressed his excitement.

"The trio is excited though they have a lot of work ahead of them.”

Their trip will mark the 36th mission to the 100 billion dollars space station which is constantly staffed.

Originally, the astronauts were scheduled to undock the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft at the International Space Station Thursday at 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT), with an expected landing on Friday at 11:56 p.m. EDT (0356 GMT).

"I talked to our colleagues in Kazakhstan last night and the weather is really horrible, and a decision was made not to risk, and we suggest that we delay the landing." chief Russian flight director Vlademir Solovyev said through a translator on NASA TV.