Station Crewmembers, Tourist Return

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and space tourist Charles Simonyi landed safely in their Soyuz spacecraft in the steppes of southern Kazakhstan at 2:16 a.m. CDT April 8.

The Expedition 18 crew members undocked their Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft from the International Space Station at 10:55 p.m. April 7. The deorbit burn began at 1:24 a.m. April 8. The landing site was shifted south because of poor conditions at the original target site, according to NASA.

Fincke and Lonchakov spent six months in space as part of the 18th ISS crew, which Fincke commanded. Fincke has now spent a full year in space over the course of his career, including nearly 188 days with Expedition 9 in 2004.

Lonchakov completed his first long-duration visit to space, after spending 12 days aboard shuttle Endeavour in 2001, and nearly 11 days in 2002.

American Simonyi spent 11 days on the station as part of a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, and is the only space tourist to visit the station twice, following his first visit in the spring of 2007.

The returning astronauts left behind Expedition 19 Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer Mike Barratt and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Padalka and Barratt arrived at the station March 26 aboard the same Soyuz that brought Simonyi. Wakata came to the station on the shuttle Discovery March 15, during the STS-119 mission that installed the outpost's final solar array.

In May, the Expedition 19 crew will be joined by Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, who will round out the first six-person ISS crew.

Soyuz touchdown photo: NASA