The scheduled landing of Expedition 34 crew members Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin has been delayed 24 hours to March 16th due to bad weather in Kazakhstan.
Today,
Expedition 34 Commander Kevin A. Ford and Flight Engineers Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy landed their Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft in the steppe of Kazakhstan, northeast of the remote town of Arkalyk Friday at an estimated time of 11:08 p.m. EST. Despite fog, low visibility and below freezing temperatures Russian recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and adjust to gravity after 144 days in space.
The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in October and spent 142 days living and working aboard the International Space Station.
The undocking marks the end of Expedition 34 and the start of Expedition 35 under the command of Canadian Space Agency astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield, who is scheduled to remain on the station with Flight Engineers Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko until May. Ford ceremonially handed command of the station over to Hadfield on Wednesday. Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko arrived at the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-07Mspacecraft in December 2012.
Soyuz TMA-06M landing as seen from chopper:-
Landing as seen from the helicopters. After 142 days on the International Space Station, Expedition 34 crew members Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin successfully touched down back on Earth in their Soyuz TMA-06M at 03:05 UTC on March 16th 2013 in Kazakhstan.