NASA Astronaut flight engineer and Army Col. T.J. Creamer landed along with Expedition 23 Commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Soichi Noguchi in Kazakhstan, June 1, wrapping up a five-and-a-half-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
The spacecraft undocked at 8:04 p.m. EDT from the aft port on the station's Zvezda module. The crew landed at 11:25 p.m., east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
Russian recovery teams were on hand to help the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and adjust to gravity after 163 days in space. Creamer will return to Houston on Wednesday.
The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 21, 2009. As members of the Expedition 22 and 23 crews, they spent 161 days on the station.
They supported three space shuttle missions that delivered the U.S. Tranquility module and its cupola; put the finishing touches on U.S. laboratory research facilities; and attached the Russian Rassvet laboratory and storage module.
Research conducted during Expedition 23 took advantage of the microgravity conditions for a wide variety of fields, including human life sciences, biological science, human physiology, physical and materials science and Earth and space science.
The station is currently occupied by the Expedition 24 commander and two flight engineers, who arrived April 4. A new trio of Expedition 24 flight engineers will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 15.
This trio is scheduled to include Army astronaut Col. Doug Wheelock.
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