There is nothing like coming home after a long day at work or even after a nice long trip. What this means for most of us is a car ride or plane trip home. While these journeys may seem long and sometimes even tedious, it is nothing compared to the return home of an astronaut from space.
The above picture shows the amazing return of a Soyuz space capsule containing two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut. They returned to Earth after a six-month stint aboard the International Space station. Astronaut Barry Wilmore, the outgoing Space Station commander, along with Russians Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova were in good spirits after making the 249-mile free fall for their return to the Earth. The entire trip home took approximately 45 minutes. While this might seem like a long time to fall back to Earth, one could quickly be jealous of the distance they traveled in that time compared to our daily commutes to and from work.
While the picture above looks serene, the craft is actually moving really fast. Once the Soyuz capsule hits what is known as Earth's Entry Interface at around 400,000 miles in the air, the thickening atmosphere begins to create friction and it is moving at approximately 755 feet per second or 500 miles per hour. After four of the capsules first-stage parachutes have deployed, the craft is slowed to 262 feet per second. By the time the final parachute is deployed, the craft has slowed to 24 feet per second. Just before touchdown, two small engines fire for a second to ensure the capsule lands without a bump.
Once the capsule touched down, all three astronauts were removed one at a time from the capsule and placed in recliner-style chairs to begin their adjustments to an environment with gravity. This is standard procedure for all astronauts and cosmonauts that that spend an extended time period onboard the station. The capsule itself touched down in a foggy and cold Kazakhstan requiring the astronaut and cosmonauts be wrapped in blankets to stay warm as they adjusted to Earth's gravity.
Currently, there are three astronauts that remain onboard the International Space Station. On March 27, they will be joined by three more astronauts. Among these three are astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who are set to spend a full year onboard the space station taking part in multiple expirements while onboard.
