Source: Xinhua
04-08-2009 21:47
Special Report: Tech MaxMOSCOW, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A Russian manned spacecraft has returned to Earth, landing in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, local media reported.
The Soyuz TMA-13 spaceship, with two astronauts and one space tourist aboard, departed from the International Space Station (ISS) at 07:55 Moscow time (0355 GMT), and landed at 11:16 Moscow time (0716 GMT) on schedule at a site northeast of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan, according to the Mission Control Center.
"Search groups reported that the spacecraft landed within the planned area. All crew members are feeling well," a mission control spokesperson told Interfax news agency.
A live broadcast on Russian Vesti TV showed the two astronauts and the tourist covered in blankets and talking to ground personnel.
The crew postponed their landing for a day due to severe floods at the originally planned landing site in Kazakhstan.
After spending more than 11 days on the ISS, Hungarian-born U.S. businessman Charles Simonyi returned with the crew of the 18th expedition of the ISS -- U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov.
The crew brought back the results of medical, biological and bio-technological experiments, including a bioreactor with bacteria grown in orbit.
A Soyuz TMA-14 spaceship carrying Simonyi and two astronauts on the 19th ISS expedition blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on March 26 and docked with the ISS on March 28.
Simonyi, one of the brains behind Bill Gates' Microsoft, is the first twice self-funded space traveler. The 60-year-old billionaire paid his first visit to space in 2007, which reportedly cost him 25 million U.S. dollars. The second trip cost him about 35 million dollars.
Besides Simonyi, U.S. businessman Dennis Tito, South African Mark Shuttleworth, U.S. millionaire Gregory Olsen, Iranian-born American Anousheh Ansari and U.S. computer games developer Richard Garriott have also paid to visit space.
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Editor:Yang Jie
