01-07-2012 03:46 Expedition 31 Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers landed safely in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan near the town of Dzhezkazgan on July 1, 2012. The trio completed 193 days in space and 191 days on the International Space Station since launching in late December 2011. They are shown being assisted into reclining chairs by Russian personnel and beginning their adaptation to gravity after they were extracted from their capsule in Kazakhstan.

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Space Travelers Make Safe Return to Earth - Video

The team of Russian, Dutch, and American astronauts touched down in a Soyuz space capsule.

After half a year living on the International Space Station, three astronauts safely returned to Earth Sunday (July 1) aboard a Russian-built space capsule.

The Soyuz spacecraft landed on Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at 4:14 a.m. EDT (0414 GMT) to return NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers back to their home planet.

"Everything is good, we feel great," Kononenko radioed Russia's Mission Control Center just before landing.

The spaceflyers had undocked from the space station several hours earlier in theirRussian-built Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraftto begin the journey home. They landed upright under a blue sky dotted with some white clouds in Kazakhstan, where the local time was Sunday afternoon.

Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers arrived at the orbiting outpost in December 2011. All three had flown previousmissions to the space station, making them a crew of veteran spaceflyers.

In a blog post describing his final day in space, Pettit reflected on the impact of his months-long mission, and encouraged humanity to keep pushing the boundaries of space exploration.

"On Earth, the frontiers opened slowly," Pettit wrote. "The technology of sailing was known and advanced for over a thousand years before the Earth was circumnavigated. Such bold acts require the technology, the will, and the audacity to explore. Sometimes you have one, but not the others. I only hope that my small efforts here, perhaps adding one grain of sand to the beach of knowledge, will help enable a generation of people in the future to call space 'home.'" [Landing Photos: Soyuz Capsule Returns 3 Astronauts Home]

Throughout their mission, Pettit and Kuipers shared with the public stunning photos of the Earth from space through Twitter and the photo sharing flight Flickr. Pettit also regularly updated a blog about his experiences on the space station, which included severalpoems in tribute to life in space.

Pettit also kept a journal as a fun way to document his scientific activities on the orbiting outpost. For instance, Pettit wrote blog updatesin the voice of a zucchini plantwhen he experimented with growing different kinds of plants in microgravity.

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After six months in orbit, space station astronauts land safely in Kazakhstan

The moon may soon be a tourist destination for millionaires with Excalibur Almaz, a British spaceflight firm, preparing to sell $150,000 tickets aboard a 1970s Soviet space station retrofitted with new thrusters

Space tourists may soon be able to pay their own way to the moon on board old Russian spacecraft retrofitted by a company based in the British Isles.

The spaceflight firm Excalibur Almaz estimates that it can sell about 30 seats between 2015 and 2025, for $150 million each, aboard moon-bound missions on a Salyut-class space station driven by electric hall-effect thrusters.

Excalibur Almaz founder and chief executive officer Art Dula estimates it will take 24 to 30 months to develop the remaining technology needed and to refurbish the ex-Soviet spacecraft and space stations the company already owns. It bought four 1970s-era Soviet Almaz program three-crew capsules and two Russian Salyut-class 63,800-pound (29,000 kilograms) space station pressure vessels.

Declaring that he is ready to sell tickets and that a 50 percent return on investment could be achieved in three years, Dula told the Royal Aeronautical Society's third European space tourism conference on June 19, "At $100 million to 150 million [per seat, we can sell] up to 29 seats in the next 10 years, and that is a conservative estimate. We [chose] not to use, for this presentation, the aggressive estimates." [Gallery: Private Space Stations of the Future]

Those conservative and aggressive estimates are from a market study entitled "Market analysis of commercial human orbital and circumlunar spaceflight" carried out for Excalibur Almaz by the management consultancy Futron. In 2009, Excalibur Almaz officials told SPACE.com the company's first flight would be in 2013.

The architecture for the lunar mission involves a Soviet Almaz Reusable Return Vehicle (RRV), which can carry three people, launched by a Soyuz-FG rocket. This rocket also launches Russia's Soyuz manned capsule. The RRV weighs 6,600 pounds (3,000 kg) and has a habitable volume of 159 cubic feet (4.5 cubic meters). The lunar flight also uses a Salyut-class 63,800-pound (29,000 kg) space station that is launched by a Proton rocket. While Excalibur Almaz intends to use the Soyuz-FG and Proton initially, Dula did not rule out using other rockets, including Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) Falcon 9 in the future. Dula said Excalibur Almaz would wait for the Falcon 9 to accumulate enough flights that it became feasible to insure the space station module aboard the rocket.

"Our customers are private expedition members and I think it is fundamentally different to tourism," Dula said. "What we are offering [with the lunar flight] is more like expeditions."

Once in orbit, the station and RRV will dock and the station's propulsion system, which is a group of electric hall-effect thrusters, propels the stack out to the moon. Excalibur Almaz is in talks with Natick, Mass.-based Busek Space Propulsion to develop the hall-effect thrusters needed. Dula described an electric system for the station module that would use up to 100,000 watts of power for its thrusters. If a solar or cosmic radiation event threatened a flight's crew and passengers, the company could run power through "electrical lines around the station and keep most of the charged articles away protons you can keep out with an electrical field." He also said the station would have a refuge area crew and passengers could use to protect against radiation storms.

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Company promises flights to the moon aboard recycled Soviet space station

Three International Space Station crew members landed safely back on Earth Sunday, culminating a 6 1/2-month mission, NASA staff said.

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Updated July 2, 2012 at 7:28 AM

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 1 (UPI) -- Three International Space Station crew members landed safely back on Earth Sunday, culminating a 6 1/2-month mission, NASA staff said.

Staff at the Johnson Space Center in Houston said the trio of space travelers who comprised the crew of Expedition 31 -- Russian Commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA flight engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency flight engineer Andre Kuipers -- landed their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 2:14 p.m. local time (3:14 p.m. EDT). They had left the space station's Rassvet module Saturday night.

The three crew members had arrived at the station Dec. 23 and spent a total of 193 days in space, with all but two of them aboard the space station.

Their work while at the station helped support more than 200 scientific investigations involving more than 400 researchers worldwide. The studies ranged from integrated investigations of the human cardiovascular and immune systems to fluid, flame and robotic research, NASA said.

Before heading back to Earth, Kononenko handed over command of Expedition 32 to Russia's Gennady Padalka, who remains at the station with NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will join them July 17. Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to launch July 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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Space station crew lands back on Earth

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man multi-national crew has touched down safely on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to their 193-day mission to the International Space Station.

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Space station crew return to Earth

Expedition 31 Crew Returns to Earth

The Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule that returned to Earth on July 1, 2012 with three astronauts from the International Space Station is shown in this NASA TV still image. The Russian Soyuz TMA-03M landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia to end the Expedition 31 mission.

The view from Russia's Mission Control Center outside Moscow just after a Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan on July 1, 2012, returning three Expedition 31 crewmembers to Earth from the International Space Station. The words on the the main screen read: "They've Landed!" in Russian.

A Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule makes a pinpoint landing on July 1, 2012, to return three members of the Expedition 31 astronaut crew home from the International Space Station. The capsule landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule descends to Earth under its main parachute to return three Expedition 31 astronauts home from the International Space Station on July 1, 2012. The capsule was landing in southeast Kazakstan in Central Asia.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule descends to Earth under its main parachute to return three Expedition 31 astronauts home from the International Space Station on July 1, 2012. The capsule was landing in southeast Kazakstan in Central Asia.

Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko (center) sits after landing in the Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule behind him as recovery crews work to extract his two crewmates from the spacecraft on July 1, 2012. The capsule landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan after a long-duration mission to the International Space Station.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule backs away from the International Space Station after undocking to return three members of the Expedition 31 crew to Earth on July 1, 2012, in this still from a NASA broadcast.

This NASA graphic depicts the landing zone for the Russian Soyuz TMA-03M returning three Expedition 31 astronauts home from the International Space Station on July 1, 2012.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-03M space capsule backs away from the International Space Station after undocking to return three members of the Expedition 31 crew to Earth on July 1, 2012, in this still from a NASA broadcast.

Excerpt from:

Soyuz Landing Photos: 31st Space Station Crew Returns to Earth

The International Space Station has had multiple crews dock with the orbiting laboratory. Three crew members of Expedition 31 returned to Earth today after three men spent more than six months in space. Expedition 32 astronauts will continue mankind's presence in Earth orbit as both crews overlap their missions. Expedition 31 officially concludes today.

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Space Station Expedition 31 Astronauts Return to Earth

This story was updated at 5:03 a.m. ET.

After half a year living on the International Space Station, three astronauts safely returned to Earth Sunday (July 1) aboard a Russian-built space capsule.

The Soyuz spacecraft landed on Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at 4:14 a.m. EDT (0414 GMT) to return NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers back to their home planet.

"Everything is good, we feel great," Kononenko radioed Russia's Mission Control Center just before landing.

HSW: How Space Stations Work

The spaceflyers had undocked from the space station several hours earlier in theirRussian-built Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraftto begin the journey home. They landed upright under a blue sky dotted with some white clouds in Kazakhstan, where the local time was Sunday afternoon.

Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers arrived at the orbiting outpost in December 2011. All three had flown previousmissions to the space station, making them a crew of veteran spaceflyers.

In a blog post describing his final day in space, Pettit reflected on the impact of his months-long mission, and encouraged humanity to keep pushing the boundaries of space exploration.

"On Earth, the frontiers opened slowly," Pettit wrote. "The technology of sailing was known and advanced for over a thousand years before the Earth was circumnavigated. Such bold acts require the technology, the will, and the audacity to explore. Sometimes you have one, but not the others. I only hope that my small efforts here, perhaps adding one grain of sand to the beach of knowledge, will help enable a generation of people in the future to call space 'home.'" (Landing Photos: Soyuz Capsule Returns 3 Astronauts Home)

Throughout their mission, Pettit and Kuipers shared with the public stunning photos of the Earth from space through Twitter and the photo sharing flight Flickr. Pettit also regularly updated a blog about his experiences on the space station, which included severalpoems in tribute to life in space.

The rest is here:

Space Station Astronauts Safely Return to Earth

This story was updated at 1:23 a.m. ET.

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Space Station Astronauts Headed Home to Earth

After half a year living on the International Space Station, three astronauts safely returned to Earth on Sunday aboard a Russian-built space capsule.

The Soyuz spacecraft landed in the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at 4:14 a.m. ET, returning NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers to their home planet.

"Everything is good, we feel great," Kononenko radioed Russia's Mission Control Center just before landing.

More space news from msnbc.com

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: There's a new contender for the title of fastest star in the universe: an apparent pulsar that's blazing away from the scene of a supernova at 6 million mph.

The spacefliers undocked from the space station several hours earlier in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft to begin the journey home. They landed upright under a blue sky dotted with some white clouds in Kazakhstan, where the local time was Sunday afternoon. Live video tracked the Soyuz's descent at the end of its parachute, right down to the ground.

Veterans return from frontier Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers arrived at the orbiting outpost in December 2011. All three had flown previous missions to the space station, making them a crew of veteran spacefliers.

In a blog post describing his final day in space, Pettit reflected on the impact of his months-long mission, and encouraged humanity to keep pushing the boundaries of space exploration.

"On Earth, the frontiers opened slowly," Pettit wrote. "The technology of sailing was known and advanced for over a thousand years before the Earth was circumnavigated. Such bold acts require the technology, the will, and the audacity to explore. Sometimes you have one, but not the others. I only hope that my small efforts here, perhaps adding one grain of sand to the beach of knowledge, will help enable a generation of people in the future to call space 'home.'" [Landing Photos: Soyuz Capsule Returns 3 Astronauts Home]

Throughout their mission, Pettit and Kuipers shared stunning photos of Earth from space with the public through Twitter and the Flickr photo-sharing site. Pettit also regularly updated his blog with accounts of his experiences on the space station, including several poems in tribute to life in space.

Go here to see the original:

Space station trio gets back down to Earth

This story was updated at 5:03 a.m. ET.

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Space Station Astronauts Return to Earth Aboard Soyuz Capsule

China will deploy bigger spacecraft for longer missions following the success of its Shenzhou 9 voyage, allowing it to build a manned space station and potentially put a man on the moon, experts said. ...

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China set to launch bigger space programme

Three astronauts living on the International Space Station will return home to Earth Sunday (July 1) after spending more than six months in orbit.

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Space Station Crew to Return to Earth Sunday

29-06-2012 10:05 In his off duty time, NASA Astronaut Don Pettit cools down with some microgravity water balloon experiments aboard the International Space Station. Through a partnership between NASA and the American Physical Society you can participate in Pettit's physics challenge and view future experiments here:

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Science off the Sphere: Space Balloonacy - Video

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday, ending a mission that put the country's first woman in space and completed a manned docking test critical to its goal of building a space station by 2020. The spacecraft's gumdrop-shaped return capsule descended to Earth by parachute and touched down shortly after 10 a.m. EDT (0200 GMT) in China's northwestern Inner ...

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China hails space mission's success as crew returns to Earth

China's historic Shenzhou 9 mission may be over, but the nation's space program won't stay grounded for long.

The Shenzhou 9 spacecraft and its three crewmembers returned to Earth Thursday at about 10 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. Friday Beijing time), wrapping up a mission that launched China's first female astronaut and featured its first-ever manned space docking.

China won't rest on its laurels for long, however. The nation plans to continue its steady march into space, beginning with another manned launch in just a few months' time.

Working toward a space station

Shenzhou 9's chief goal was to test out technologies and techniques needed to build a space station in Earth orbit. Chinese officials have said they hope to have a 60-ton station up and running by 2020. (For comparison, the International Space Station weighs 430 tons.) [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

By any measure, Shenzhou 9 the nation's fourth human spaceflight mission, after efforts in 2003, 2005 and 2008 appears to have been a big success. The spacecraft docked with the unmanned Tiangong 1 space module by remote control on June 18, and then again on June 24 while being piloted by the taikonauts (as Chinese astronauts are called).

China thus became just the third nation after the United States and Russia to achieve a manned linkup of spacecraft in Earth orbit.

"The manual docking was beautifully conducted. It was very accurate and swift, " said Liu Weibo, the official responsible for China's astronaut system, according to the nation's state-run Xinhua news service.

And more manned docking tests are on the horizon. The Shenzhou 10 mission will launch more taikonauts to Tiangong 1 soon, perhaps in early 2013; Chinese space officials have said they'll firm up a date after fully examining the results of Shenzhou 9's flight and the status of Tiangong 1.

China won't confine its human spaceflight activities to low-Earth orbit. The nation has said it plans to land a taikonaut on the moon in the near future, likely after its space station is up and running.

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China Set for More Manned Space Missions

A video recorded on the International Space Station shows the smoke-filled skies of the American West.

By Alan Boyle

A four-minute video from the International Space Station, released today by NASA, captures a beautiful and horrible sight: Ribbons of smoke drifting across Colorado and other Western states, due to a rash of wildfires.

You can also see sunlight glinting off lakes, as well as the snow-covered Rocky Mountains. But the haze covering the plains makes the biggest impression as you watch the landscape pass by, 230 miles (370 kilometers) beneath the station and a docked Russian spacecraft.

More than 30,000 residents in the Colorado Springs area had to evacuate their homes Tuesday night, due to what officials said was the most destructive fire in the state's history. Today, Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach passed along a preliminary report that the Waldo Canyon Fire destroyed 346 houses. President Barack Obama is due to visit the city on Friday to meet with firefighters and tour the fire-ravaged zones. (Our slideshow documents the devastation.)

The worst fire season in recent history is taking its toll with large fires burning thousands of acres in Colorado while others consume areas in Montana, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming.

Other wildfires burned in Colorado as well as Utah and Montana, The Associated Press reported.

The space station can capture high-resolution video and stills of the scene from its Cupola observation deck, but that's not the only vantage point at NASA's disposal. Earth-watching satellites such as Terra and Aqua are also monitoring the wildfires, as are weather satellites such as GOES-15. Here's a picture of the western U.S. taken by GOES-15 at 8:45 a.m. ET today and processed by the NASA GOES Project at Goddard Space Flight Center:

NASA / NOAA GOES Project

The GOES-15 satellite keeps a stationary eye over the western United States. Smoke from the fires raging in several states has created a brownish-colored blanket over the entire region.

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Western wildfires seen from space

DENVER It's time to get serious about science in space, and the International Space Station is the perfect place to start, NASA officials said earlier this week.

"We are in a position in space research and space exploration where we have to push the ball and advance forward or we're about ready to retreat from space," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told a crowd of researchers here at the first annual ISS Research and Development Conference.

Science experiments on the space station have been under way since the outpost's early days, of course. Construction of the orbiting laboratory began in 1998, and there has been a continuous human presence on the station since 2000. Now, however, there is little left to build and many opportunities to exploit, according to NASA speakers, who encouraged scientists to spread the word.

"We need to really reach out and push and use that same creativity and innovation that we used to build this wonderful facility to actually utilize it," Gerstenmaier said. [Infographic: The International Space Station Inside and Out]

More space news from msnbc.com

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: There's a new contender for the title of fastest star in the universe: an apparent pulsar that's blazing away from the scene of a supernova at 6 million mph.

In May, SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule successfully docked with the space station, becoming the first commercial spacecraft in history to do so. With SpaceX and other private companies providing transportation, private research companies will have the routine access they need to commit to space research, Gerstenmaier said. Meanwhile, upgrades like Earth-compatible power outlets and wireless internet connectivity will make it easier for terrestrially bound scientists to create experiments that will work in space, said Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS program director.

Keeping humans in space The human component to space exploration was at the forefront in NASA officials' messages. Human experimenters can be part of experiments, making observations in a way that an automated system never could, said NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati. And human perseverance can also yield surprising results.

For example, now-retired astronaut Shannon Lucid was once conducting a fluid physics experiment on the Russian research satellite Mir, Gerstenmaier said. Her job was to shake a container of liquid in an attempt to form a bubble in a certain spot. Based on computer models, researchers were certain that the experiment was physically impossible but Lucid didn't know that. With communications temporarily interrupted between Mir and Earth, she kept at the experiment for over an hour. Finally, she got the bubble to form.

"It blew away their theory," Gerstenmaier said. "They believed their computer analysis. She didn't know that and really pushed that boundary."

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Space station science at critical point

China's progress toward its own space station took a giant leap forward Friday when its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft returned to Earth with three astronauts safely aboard, Reuters reports.

China's fourth manned space mission proved an important milestone--it was the longest and most demanding yet, and included the country's first female astronaut, 33-year-old Liu Yang.

During their 13 days in orbit, Yang and two other astronauts also completed the country's transfer of astronauts between orbiting spacecraft, an important step toward its goal of manning its own space station by 2020.

If successful, China will be the only country in low orbit at the start of the next decade--the International Space Station is scheduled to go out of service in 2020. Earlier this year, the United States ended its manned space flight program.

[Photos:Space Shuttle Discovery Makes Final Flight]

The Shenzhou 9 landed with a thud in the desert of northwestern China shortly after 10 a.m. Friday. The three astronauts, unable to walk, were carried to folding chairs nearby to address the state media.

"We are proud of the motherland," said Yang, the youngest of the three astronauts. "Tiangong 1, our home in space, was comfortable and pleasant."

The Tiangong 1 ("The Heavenly Palace" in Chinese) will be retired in a few years and replaced with a space station, which China alone will operate. The country was not allowed to participate in the 16-nation International Space Station, in part because the United States feared the country would acquire advanced technology, CBS News reported.

China is just the third nation to send an astronaut to space, after Russia and the United States. The U.S. will not begin testing for a manned space mission until a 2017, and Russia has announced manned missions are no longer a priority.

Seth Cline is a reporter with U.S. News and World Report. Contact him at scline@usnews.com or follow him on Twitter.

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China's Fourth Manned Mission Brings Own Space Station Closer

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station said this week they would welcome NASA's proposals to expand the lab's crew size from six to seven.

"It would certainly help," said Don Pettit, a flight engineer and one of three crew members working in the U.S. half of the station.

NASA senior leaders have begun talking about expanding the lab's crew size to seven when vehicles built by private contractors, such as SpaceX, come online as expected later this decade.

The space agency currently relies upon Russian Soyuz space capsules to get its astronauts to orbit, but the spacecraft can only carry three people at a time. Dragon is designed to carry up to seven astronauts.

"We would definitely increase the crew size on ISS to seven crew members," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, during a June 20 hearing before the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee.

"We think that will increase the research capability onboard station and allow us to do more national lab research and be more effective in utilizing space station."

The expansion is contingent on Congress increasing funding for commercial spaceflight companies, Gerstenmaier said. NASA sought annual funding of $800 million in the years 2014 through 2017 to bring private spacecraft to the launch pad by 2017.

Instead Congress has only agreed to provide a little more than half of that.

Pettit and the five other astronauts presently aboard the station had a front row seat when SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft docked in late May, becoming the first private company to fly to the orbiting laboratory.

"We trained for all kinds of difficult situations, and in reality it went very smooth," said Andr Kuipers. "Everyone was tense the first time over how it would behave, and we realize it was a special moment. This will be the future of spaceflight, commercial companies taking over low-Earth orbit, and the agencies will continue to go further and explore. It was a great first step in a new era."

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Astronauts support expansion of space station crew size