• Soyuz capsule lands safely with space station crew

    Denise Chow of SPACE.com reports: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan today, bringing NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts safely back to Earth after a months-long stay at the International Space Station.

    The Soyuz TMA-01M capsule touched down in Kazakhstan about 50 miles north of the town of Arkalyk on the snowy steppes of Central Asia at about 3:54 a.m. EDT.

    Dmitry Kostyukov / AFP - Getty Images

    A Russian Soyuz capsule with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri and US astronaut Scott Kelly on board lands near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan on March 16. The capsule carrying the previous crew of the International Space Station (ISS) landed successfully, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

    Onboard the Soyuz were the space station's Expedition 26 commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian flight engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri. They landed under harsh conditions, with ankle-deep snow and 30-knot winds reported by recovery crews.

    "The Soyuz landed on its side, but in good shape," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said from the landing zone.

    The wind apparently dragged the spacecraft by its parachute about 75 feet (nearly 23 meters), Navias added.

    "You would think that was a scene out of the North Pole," Navias said, calling it "viciously cold" at one point. "It was a bull's-eye landing under very harsh conditions."

    Dmitry Kostyukov / AFP - Getty Images

    A Russian Soyuz capsule with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri and US astronaut Scott Kelly on board lands near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan on March 16.

    Kelly is the twin brother of fellow NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, who is set to command the space shuttle Endeavour on its final mission to the space station next month. Mark Kelly is the husband of injured Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering after being shot in the head during a Jan. 8 attack in Tucson that injured 13 people and killed six others.

    Scott Kelly has said that he hopes to help his sister-in-law with her recovery when he returns home to Houston.

    Read the full story.

  • Dmitry Kostyukov / AFP - Getty Images

    A Russian Soyuz TMA-20 is taken to a launch pad at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome on Dec. 13, 2010.

    Dmitry Lovetsky / AP

    Service towers lift up to the Russian Soyuz TMA-20 space ship that will carry new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, on the launch pad at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Dec. 13.

    Russian Soyuz TMA-20 heads to launch pad, prepares for blast off

    By Elena Grothe

    From Getty: The Russian Soyuz TMA-20 with U.S. astronaut Cady Coleman, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratiev on board is set to blast off to the International Space Station on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

  • Sergei Remezov / Reuters

    International Space Station (ISS) crew member European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Angelo Nespoli sits inside Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft in the assembling hangar at the Baikonur cosmodrome Dec. 4, in Kazakhstan. The crew of Nespoli, NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman and Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev is due to travel by Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station on Dec.15.

    Soyuz crew prepares for trip to International Space Station

  • Astronaut shares space photos from the International Space Station via twitpic

    By Robert Hood

    Douglas H. Wheelock is an astronaut and a photographer. He just happens to be photographing from a great location: the International Space Station. Wheelock has been making pictures and uploading to his twitpic account for several months, much to the delight of his Twitter followers. You can follow Wheelock @  http://twitter.com/Astro_Wheels#

    Douglas Wheelock / NASA / TWITPIC via AP

    This image provided by NASA and posted to Twitpic by astronaut Douglas Wheelock on Oct. 30, 2010 shows a mountain in the Andes of South America as seen from the International Space Station. Earthlings are seeing their planet in a whole new light, thanks to NASA and its astronauts aboard the Internet-wired space station. They're sending down dazzling images and guess-this-mystery-location photos via Twitter.

    Douglas Wheelock / NASA / TWITPIC via AP

    This image provided by NASA and posted to Twitpic by astronaut Douglas Wheelock on Nov. 9, 2010, shows a view of Key West, Fla., as seen from the International Space Station.

  • NASA via AP

    This image shows a night image of the Florida peninsula taken on Oct. 31, 2010 by one of the Expedition 25 crew members aboard the International Space Station. Both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts are visible in the scene, which includes the Florida "Panhandle" and part of the Georgia coast.

    Flying over Florida

    msnbc.com story: NASA clears shuttle for launch as storm looms

    Discovery is slated to fly an 11-day mission to the International Space Station to deliver a new storage module and a humanoid robot for the orbiting lab's crew. It will be the 39th and last flight for s pace shuttle Discovery, which is the first of NASA's three shuttles to be retired as the agency winds down its orbiter program next year.

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