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U.S., Russian, Brazilian Space Station Astronauts Back on Earth

New crew to perform two spacewalks, greet two space shuttle crews

After orbiting Earth more than 3,000 times during six months on the International Space Station, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev returned to the planet April 8 in Kazakhstan.

With them was Marcos Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, who flew to the station with the Expedition 13 crew last week as part of a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos.

Pontes spent eight days on the station conducting experiments, according to an April 8 NASA press release.

The Soyuz spacecraft with McArthur, Tokarev and Pontes landed in central Kazakhstan, about 48 kilometers northeast of Arkalyk. The crewmembers' families greeted them at Star City, Russia, near Moscow, early April 10.

McArthur and Tokarev will stay in Star City for post-flight debriefings before returning to Houston later in April. McArthur and Tokarev launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, September 30, 2005.

They spent 189 days, 18 hours and 51 minutes in space. During their mission, they conducted two spacewalks and relocated their Soyuz spacecraft twice, becoming the first space station crew to dock to every Russian docking port on the complex. They also became the first two-person station crew to conduct a spacewalk in Russian and U.S. spacesuits.

The new station crew, Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, will have light duty for the next few days as they rest from a busy handover. They will remain in orbit for six months. The crew plans to perform two spacewalks and greet two space shuttle crews during their expedition.

Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut from Germany, will join them during their stay on the station. Reiter will also fly under a commercial agreement with Roscosmos.

Reiter is scheduled to arrive at the station on space shuttle Discovery's STS-121 mission, targeted for a July launch. He will be the first non-Russian, non-U.S. long-duration crewmember on the station.

His arrival will bring the station crew size to three for the first time since May 2003, when the crew size was reduced to conserve supplies in the wake of the space shuttle Columbia accident.

Shuttle Atlantis' STS-115 mission is also scheduled during Expedition 13 and will resume major assembly of the station.

The shuttle and station crews will work together to add another set of batteries and solar arrays to the orbiting laboratory.

Source: U.S. Department of State