Expedition 16 Soyuz Lands Safely in Kazakhstan

April 19, 2008

Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-3749
katherine.trinidad@xxxxxxxx

John Ira Petty
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
john.i.petty@xxxxxxxx

RELEASE: 08-105

EXPEDITION 16 SOYUZ LANDS SAFELY IN KAZAKHSTAN

HOUSTON - NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of
the International Space Station, returned to Earth at approximately
4:30 a.m. EDT Saturday, ending a mission during which she conducted
five spacewalks and set a new record in American spaceflight.

Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, members of the 16th
crew to live and work aboard the station, safely landed their Soyuz
spacecraft in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Spaceflight participant
So-yeon Yi also returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz. The landing was
approximately 295 miles from the expected landing site, delaying the
recovery forces' arrival to the spacecraft by approximately 45
minutes.

Whitson, 48, has accumulated more time in space than any U.S.
astronaut in history. She and Malenchenko, who launched to the
station on Oct. 10, 2007, spent 192 days in space. This was Whitson's
second flight to the station. She served almost 185 days as a flight
engineer on the Expedition 5 crew, which launched June 5, 2002, and
returned to Earth Dec. 7, 2002. Whitson has totaled 377 days in space
during two missions. On April 16, she surpassed the 374-day record
set by astronaut Mike Foale during his six flights.

Malenchenko, 46, a Russian Air Force colonel, completed his third
long-duration spaceflight. He spent 126 days aboard the Russian space
station Mir in 1994, and commanded Expedition 7, spending 185 days in
space in 2006. He also was a member of the STS-106 crew of shuttle
Atlantis on a 12-day mission to the station in 2000. He has
accumulated 515 days in space during his four flights. That is the
ninth highest total of cumulative time.

The Expedition 16 crew worked with experiments across a wide variety
of fields, including human life sciences, physical sciences and Earth
observation. Many of the experiments are designed to gather
information about the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the
human body, which will help with planning future exploration missions
to the moon and Mars.

The Expedition 16 crew members undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from
the station at 1:06 a.m. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz and begin
its descent toward the Earth began at 3:40 a.m.

Before undocking, Whitson and Malenchenko bid farewell to the new
station crew, Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight
Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Garrett Reisman. Volkov and Konenko
launched to the station April 8. They were accompanied by Yi who flew
under a commercial contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.
Reisman came to the station aboard shuttle Endeavour on the STS-123
mission, which launched March 11.

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station



For more information about astronaut Peggy Whitson, visit:



http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/whitson.html


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