Soyuz Capsule lands with Laliberte, Padalka and Barratt

By admin on October 11, 2009 at 5:28 pm

Canadian circus billionaire Guy Laliberte, who became the first clown in space, safely returned to Earth on Sunday. The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying Guy Laliberte, Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt landed near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan at 12:32 a.m. EDT. As usual, Guy Laliberte was wearing his trademark clown’s red nose during the landing.

Russian recovery teams were on hand within minutes of landing to help the crew exit from the Soyuz vehicle and reacclimate to gravity. The crew members will return to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, outside of Moscow, for reunions with their families.

Padalka and Barratt spent 199 days in space and 197 days on the International Space Station (ISS) after their March 26 launch. Laliberte launched with the Expedition 21 crew on a Soyuz vehicle Sept. 30 and returned after nine days on the station. Laliberte, the founder and CEO of the world-renowned acrobatic group Cirque du Soleil, joined the mission as the world’s seventh space tourist.

The orbiting space station is now occupied by Expedition 21 Commander Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency and Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko and Max Suraev of Russia, Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency and Nicole Stott and Jeff Williams of NASA.

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Category: Space | Tags: ISS, NASA, Soyuz Capsule, Space