14 DAY TRIAL // Crew members from Expedition 18 to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, accompanied by repeat space tourist Charles Simonyi, landed safely in the Kazakh steppes at 11:16 local time (0716 GMT) on Wednesday, ending a 13-day journey to the orbital facility. Russian authorities say that the Soyuz spacecraft, which safely delivered the crew back to Earth, performed exemplary, and that its riders didn't get too shaken up during reentry.
Fincke, the commander of the ISS for the last six months, returned home with flight engineer Lonchakov only to experience the tug of gravity once more. “This is what Earth is like!” Fincke said, after he and the others were extracted from the Soyuz capsule by recovery workers, who had watched from helicopters how the Russian capsule gently sat its cargo on the ground, during what was described as a pinpoint-accuracy landing. The two space fliers were in orbit for roughly six months, and were therefore placed in wheelchairs after they were extracted from the spacecraft.
“It was a difficult decision for me to fly for the second time and now looking back, I'm so glad that I've done it. From where I stand, I think humanity has got a wonderful space station in the International Space Station. Maybe the only thing that is more remarkable than the size and the effectiveness of this space vehicle is the people serving on board,” 60-year-old Simonyi, a former Microsoft executive, said. This was the second time he ventured aboard the ISS, for the hefty price of $35 million. The first time was in 2007, when he paid over $20 million for the opportunity.
For all intents and purposes, Simonyi was the last space tourist to the ISS for the immediate future. The Russian space agency, which was the only supplier of seats for private individuals, will have no more room to spare in the next missions, as a permanent crew of six is to be lifted to the space station starting this May. All the space shuttles have their schedules full with missions lasting until the end of 2010, when they are to be withdrawn.
Because the Soyuz capsules are the only things connecting the Earth to the space station, whenever a shift of half a crew is made, three astronauts will descend to Earth and three will go up, thus eliminating any possibility for others to join the flight in the three-seat capsule. After 2015, as NASA's Constellation Project rolls out, it's possible that the practice will be resumed, but not if RosCosmos starts developing its next-generation spacecraft as well. In that case, private flights will be delayed by another 5 to 10 years.