Spacers

At Whitson's End

Peggy Whitson, commander of Expedition 16 on the International Space Station, and holder of the record for longest cumulative time in space for an American, ended her tenure with a landing in Kazakhstan with her crewmate Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and South Korea's first astronaut, 29-year-old bioengineer Yi So-yeon.



Yi described their descent through reentry as "Really scary" as a glitch in the descent profile caused their Soyuz capsule to go through a "ballistic reentry", whereby a much steeper drop through the atmosphere inflicts much higher G loads on the occupants.



Expedition 17 is settling in to their new home and is awaiting the arrival of the STS-124 Space Shuttle mission due to launch on May 31st. Keep an eye on Spacers for coverage of the mission!

Happy Spacing, Spacers!

SpaceHead