* Astronomy

The ground recovery team carries John Phillips to a chillout tent. The Soyuz landing capsule is seen in background.


The crew's families will greet them at Star City near Moscow early tomorrow. Krikalev and Phillips will remain in Star City for post-flight debriefings before returning to Houston later this month.

Krikalev and Phillips launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on April 14. They spent 179 days, 23 minutes in space. During their mission, they welcomed the Space Shuttle Discovery's crew in July and set important milestones.

In June, Phillips became the first American to give congressional testimony from space. He appeared by satellite before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.

On Aug. 16, Krikalev set the human record for time in space. He surpassed Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev's record of 747 days, 14 hours and 14 minutes. Krikalev is a veteran of six spaceflights, including two to the Russian space station Mir, two shuttle flights and the first international space station expedition. He spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes in orbit.

The new station crew, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, will have light duty for the next few days, as they rest from the handover. They will remain in orbit six months and perform at least two spacewalks, the first in early November.


Russian ground recovery team members carry Gregory Olsen to the chillout tent shortly after landing. The Soyuz capsule carrying space tourist Gregory Olsen, American astronaut John Phillips and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev landed near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan, early Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005 three hours after separating from the International Space Station. (credit Ivan Sekretarev).

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