Space Station Crew Returns to Earth after 163 Days

Soyuz TMA17 fires breaking rockets prior to landing. (NASA)

A trio of crew members who spent six months living in space returned back to earth tonight just hours after undocking from the International Space Station.

Beautiful blue skies and 65 degrees greeted the returning crew at it's landing site in the isolated region in northern Kazakhstan.

Expedition 23 commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi landed their Soyuz TMA 17 spacecraft on target tonight at 11:25 pm EDT (9:25 am Wednesday Kazakhstan time).

"It was really a success mission for us. I really appreciate all my crew members who helped me," outgoing station commander Kotov stated on Monday during a brief change of command ceremony. "And, Alexander, I give up command of this station."

Expedition 24 commander Alexander Skvortsov and flight engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko will stay alone on the station for the next two weeks. A new crew of three -- Shannon Walker and Doug Wheelock from NASA and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikin -- will then embark on their six month voyage aboard the space station with their launch from Baikonor on June 16.

Earlier they officially closed their hatch at 4:54 pm EDT which led to the vestibule. The crew then begin a series of leak checks inside the Soyuz.

Then with Kotov at the Soyuz controls, the spacecraft undocked from the Russian Zevezda module at 8:04 pm to begin the journey home.

The Soyuz then made one and one-half revolutions of the earth prior to it's deorbit burn at 10:34 pm, which slowed the spacecraft down by 258 mph to drop out of an orbit of 220 miles up.

The Soyuz then began feeling the first effects of the earth's atmosphere 32 minutes later at an altitude of 62 miles high. The tug of gravity began to also overwhelm the spacecraft, the first moments of gravity the three men have felt in 163 days.

Several Parachutes then deployed minutes before landing, followed by several breaking rockets which fired seconds before touchdown slowing the craft's speed down to 21 mph and a soft landing (above).

The two astronauts and one cosmonaut launched 163 days ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 20, and docked two days later with the Russian Zarya segment of the station.

The crew were then slowly removed from the Soyuz and placed in recliner chairs, first Kotov then Noguchi and then Creamer. Noguchi enjoyed a green apple minutes later and was able to place a satellite phone call to his wife located back in south Houston, home to the Johnson Space Center.

Expedition 24 commander Alexander Skvortsov and flight engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko will stay alone on the station for the next two weeks. A new crew of three -- Shannon Walker and Doug Wheelock from NASA and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikin -- will then embark on their six month voyage aboard the space station with their launch from Baikonor on June 16.

Creamer and Noguchi will spend much of Wednesday traveling back to America, expected to land at Ellington Field at 11:00 pm Houston time on that evening.