U.S. space tourist is back safely
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ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying American space tourist Richard Garriott and a Russian crew touched down safely and on target this morning.
“Everything went well,” said a Moscow mission control spokesman. A NASA TV live feed from the center described it as a flawless landing.
The reentry attracted heightened attention after the Soyuz malfunctioned twice over the last year, subjecting crews to dangerous “ballistic” reentries and raising concerns about its reliability.
A NASA-TV announcer said Mi-8 helicopters were landing at the site near Arkalyk in north-central Kazakhstan to fetch the crew, and the hatch was opened.
“The crew reports feeling well,” the NASA live feed said.
Garriott, a video game magnate who paid $35 million for his 12-day adventure, came back with cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko.
Garriott is the son of a NASA astronaut, and Volkov’s father was in space when the Soviet Union collapsed.
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