Expedition 23 Crew Lands in Kazakhstan

Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi landed their Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 11:25 p.m. EDT Tuesday, 9:25 a.m. Wednesday Kazakhstan time, wrapping up their stay aboard the International Space Station.

Kotov was at the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 8:04 p.m. EDT from the station’s Zvezda module.

The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft carrying Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi lands on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA

The station now is occupied by Expedition 24 Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko. A new trio of Expedition 24 flight engineers – NASA astronauts Shannon Walker and Doug Wheelock and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikin – will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 16 aboard the Soyuz TMA-19.