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30 November 2010 A Soyuz descent module carrying two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut back to earth from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan 26 November 2010. The spacecraft, containing Russian commander Fyodor Yurichikhin and Nasa's Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker touched down as planned this morning north of the remote central Kazakh town of Arkalyk. Today's textbook landing is sure to calm worries about dependence on the Russian Soyuz flights after unprecedented troubles undocking during the craft's last re-entry in October forced the three-member crew to remain an extra day in orbit scrambling to free jammed latches. http://cryptome.org/info/soyuz-tma18/soyuz-tma18.htm The mishap in a space programme that depends on pinpoint accuracy came as NASA is due to mothball its Discovery shuttle programme later this year. With the Shuttles' retirement, NASA has turned over station crew ferry flights to Russia, at a cost of $51 million per person. The Shuttle program is ending after 30 years of flights due to high operating costs of about $3 billion a year. The United States does not have a replacement vehicle. The International Space Station crew of Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurichikhin (C) and US astronauts Douglas Wheelock (L) and Shannon Walker sit inside the landing capsule of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft after landing in Kazakhstan. Photo: Reuters Photos below by NASA/Bill Ingalls. Soyuz TMA-19 Descent Module Landing Photos

Soyuz TMA-19 Descent Module Landing Photos