US-Russia space crew land safely

Officials inspect the Russian Soyuz TMA-4 space capsule after its landing near Arkalyk some 350km from Kazakh capital of Astana early yesterday. Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Yuri Shargin and US astronaut Mike Finkle landed safely. PHOTO: AFP

The bell-shaped Soyuz TMA-4, carrying Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yuri Shargin and American partner Mike Fincke, touched down beneath a parachute at the targeted landing site, some 55 miles north of the town of Arkalyk, in pre-dawn darkness.

Search team members helped the three men out of the capsule. They sat in chairs, sipping hot drinks, and then underwent brief medical checks in a nearby tent before being flown to Moscow's Star City, home of the Russian space program.

Russia's non-reusable Soyuz has become the linchpin of the global community's manned space program, filling in for the US shuttle fleet, grounded since Columbia burned up on re-entry in February 2003.