3 Soviet Cosmonauts Return to Earth; Mir Space Station Left Unmanned
Three Soviet cosmonauts returned to Earth today, leaving the space station Mir with no one at the helm for only the second time since it was launched in February, 1986.
The descent module touched down in Kazakhstan in Soviet Central Asia at 6:59 a.m. Moscow time, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported. The Soyuz TM-7 landed about 90 miles northeast of Dzheskazgan, passing through cloudy skies.
Launch director Vladimir Gzhenebekov told Soviet television “a little correction” was made, but there were no problems with the landing.
Mir, considered the showpiece of the Soviet space program, is expected to remain unmanned until August in what officials called a money-saving move prompted by delays in preparing new scientific equipment for the spacecraft.
Cosmonauts Alexander Volkov, Sergei Krikalev and Valery Polyakov spent Wednesday packing a landing module and mothballing some on-board systems, Tass reported.
A new crew is scheduled for launch this summer for a six-month mission aboard the orbiting station.
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