Russian Soyuz returns to Earth

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two astronauts and an American space tourist has landed safely near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. About 200 rescue workers and doctors helped assist US billionaire Charles Simonyi, US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov back on Earth at 3:16am EDT, Wednesday. "All the systems worked excellently. We are extremely happy about it," head of Roskosmos Russian space agency, Anatoly Perminov told reporters at a post-landing news conference. "I want to congratulate the entire team. It looks like we know how now to take care of our astronauts and cosmonauts in orbit so that they look good on landing," responded NASA official Brian O'Connor. The TMA-13 craft docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, March 28, at 1305 hours GMT, with 60-year-old Hungarian-born Simonyi and Russian-American crewmembers onboard. This was Simonyi's second experience aboard the Russian/US jointly operated space station, for which he paid US$35 million. His first stay cost him US$25 million in 2007. NASA officials say, however, that Simonyi might be the last space tourist to visit the space station because the permanent ISS crew will be doubled in the near future.