14 DAY TRIAL // Early on Sunday morning, onlookers near the Russian space agency's Baikonur Cosmodrome could see the conical Soyuz TMA-14 capsule descend from the skies attached to its parachute, following a short descent from aboard the International Space Station. It returned home former International Space Station (ISS) Commander Gennady Padalka (RosCosmos) and flight engineer Michael Barratt (NASA), alongside billionaire Guy Laliberte, who just concluded an 11-day trek aboard the orbital lab.
The three space fliers departed the space station and closed the hatch between the two spacecraft at 6:06 pm EDT on Saturday, October 10 (2206 GMT), and undocked from the lab at 9:07 pm EDT (0107 GMT, Sunday, October 11). They landed safely in Kazakhstan at around 12:32 am EDT (1632 GMT). “Goodbye station. I would like to express my gratefulness to all my crewmates. Without my crew mates I would be nothing as commander,” Padalka said in the ceremony that saw him officially handing over the command of the ISS to ESA astronaut Frank de Winne.
With the ceremony, Expedition 20 officially ended, and Expedition 21 began. “For a first flight I'm probably one of the luckiest astronauts. My first flight was incredible,” Barratt, who just completed his first stay aboard the station, added. The two professional astronauts accompanying Laliberte spent six months aboard the orbital facility.
“I am an artist, not a scientist and that is the only way I can make a significant contribution to a mission. I decided to use this privilege to raise awareness for the water issue. What I've been experiencing here has been an amazing journey. This was a moment to create awareness toward the situation of water in the world. I don't have 25 years, the world don't have 25 years to address the situation of water. I think this was a great opportunity to combine to a personal dream also,” Laliberte said of his stay aboard the ISS, Space reports.
“I have a big family and that's the strongest magnet on the planet. I need to get home to them. But at the same time I'm going to be truly sad to leave this place. This crew up here has become a second family,” Barratt concluded in an interview he gave earlier today.