International space station crews land in Kazakhstan

Moscow, Apr 9 (UNI) The 12th International Space Station crews, including Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and US Astronaut William McArthur, after spending six months on ISS safely landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan today.

Announcing the safe landing of the crews, the ISS mission control, at Korolyov, outside Moscow, said Brazil's first Astronaut Marcos Pontes, who spent a week on board at the ISS, also returned safely. The Soyuz capsule landed at 0347 hrs in Kazakhstan, the mission control said.

NASA Chief Mike Griffin said after the return of the crews that the US Space Agency would continue purchasing space services from Russia to deliver its Astronauts to the ISS.

NASA would continue purchasing Russia's space services to supply Soyuz spacecraft rides for US crew-members to the ISS, RIA Novosti news agency quoted Griffin as saying at the mission control.

He, however, declined to specify the sum for which NASA intended to purchase space services from Russia, saying it was a commercial secret. He added that the sum would be specified during the negotiations with the Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos).

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