After spending nearly six months aboard the international space station, three spacefliers returned home to Earth Nov. 21 aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov departed from the space station and landed on the frigid, windy Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:26 p.m. EST. After months in orbit, the crew had a homecoming featuring wintery conditions, with harsh winds, below-freezing temperatures and a layer of snow cover at the landing site. When it touched down, the Soyuz capsule landed on its side, which is not uncommon in windy conditions, NASA officials said, but otherwise, it was a smooth and successful landing.
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