On Sunday, Hadfield handed over command of the space station to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. "Chris has done an absolutely remarkable job as the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station." New commander "It is with immense pride today that Canada welcomes our very own space pioneer Chris Hadfield back to earth," Harper said in a statement. Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered his congratulations on Hadfield's return. With their return to Earth, Hadfield and his colleagues will have spent 146 days in space on their mission. The Canadian Space Agency tweeted that they completed 2,336 orbits around the planet and clocked almost 62 million miles - or about 99.8 million kilometres. Romanenko will board a Russian aircraft for a flight to Star City, Russia. Hadfield and Marshburn will then board a NASA flight back to Houston, arriving late Tuesday. "But you can bet Chris and his two crewmates were laughing all the way down - they were having a good time."Ī helicopter was to take the astronauts to Karaganda, Kazakhstan for medical checkups. "Sure it's bumpy, sure it's a little bit dynamic, sure you get tossed around," he told reporters. Thirsk, who watched the landing at the Canadian Space Agency near Montreal, said "the real icing on the cake is the landing." " head is going to feel like a cannonball, his arms are going to feel like logs," McDonald said. "Every time he turns his head the world is going to seem to turn sideways, he's going to get dizzy."įormer Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, who spent six months on the space station in 2009, described Hadfield's return to Earth as "a really dynamic event." "Spaceflight finale: To some this may look like a sunset. About one second prior to touchdown, two sets of three small engines on the bottom of the Soyuz capsule fired to slow its rate of descent and soften the landing.Īfter the touchdown, ground crew helped Hadfield and his colleagues out of the Soyuz and put them in chairs so they can begin to re-adapt to gravity.Īstronaut Chris Hadfield posted this photo to his Twitter account on Monday prior to his departure from the International Space Station. When the capsule was about 10.7 kilometres high, its parachutes deployed, NASA mission control said. They're travelling more than 20,000 kilometres an hour.…They have to get rid of all that speed, and they do that just with friction of the air and parachutes." "When they hit the air, they're like a stone hitting water. 'Like a stone hitting water'īob McDonald, the host of CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks, said the capsule and its crew go through a rapid deceleration as they hurtle back to Earth. When they were about 12 kilometres from the station, the crew on the Soyuz capsule performed a successful de-orbit burn, slowing the craft down for its descent. The trio undocked from the space station shortly after 7 p.m. How Chris Hadfield turned earthlings on to space.It was Hadfield's first return from space in the Russian capsule - during his previous space missions, in 19, he travelled aboard one of the now retired space shuttles.Įarlier Monday, while he was reviewing Soyuz procedures on board the space station, Hadfield tweeted that he wanted "to thank every person at the Cdn Space Agency." NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said by telephone from the landing site that the three returning astronauts were doing very well. Shortly after, he was seen making a call on a satellite phone to family and friends. Once seated in a reclining chair, Hadfield gave a wave and a thumbs-up. Hadfield, 53, was the third to emerge from the tight confines of the capsule, assisted by ground crew. They landed under a large parachute in the flat steppes of Kazakhstan at 10:31 p.m. Hadfield, along with flight engineers American Tom Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko, returned aboard a Soyuz capsule. Astronaut Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the International Space Station, has safely returned to Earth after almost five months in orbit.
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