| Peggy Whitson Sets Space Record |
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| Space Exploration - Earth Orbit | ||
| Apr 21, 2008 at 12:56 PM | ||
 NASA/Bill Ingalls Expedition 16 Commander Whitson, the first female commander of ISS, landed in Kazakhstan on Saturday along with Flight Engineer and Soyuz Commander, Yuri Malenchenko and South Korean So-yeon Yi. Russian, Yuri Malenchenko has now accumulated 515 days in space during four flights. This is the ninth highest cumulative total for all astronauts. Ms Yi, who was South Korea's first astronaut, had spent 11 days on the ISS. The South Korean government had paid Russia US$20 million to send her there. The Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft came down more than 250 miles off target and 20 minutes late. Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian federal space agency, said the spacecraft had followed a "ballistic re-entry." Mr Perminov said that the crew missed the target because they had changed to the back-up landing plan at the last minute without telling mission control. This kind of re-entry is characterised by an uncontrollable and steep trajectory subjecting the crew to high g-forces. "The main thing is that the crew is alive and healthy," said Mr Perminov.
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