Posted 03.30.2010 at 4:31 pm
5 Comments
Soyuz Touching Down
Bill Ingalls/NASA
ISS Expedition 22 astronauts Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev returned from the station via Soyuz capsule earlier this month, and NASA photographer Bill Ingalls captured the decisive moment. Great shot.
Without the soft cushioning of a water landing, Russia's Soyuz capsules have traditionally parachuted home to the frozen soil of Kazakhstan. Retro-rockets fire just before impact, but nonetheless, I bet that jolt is the rudest reminder possible that you are now, once again, a subject of Earthly gravity. Welcome back; it is now time to don goofy hats.
5 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
June 2012: Invent Your Own Anything
The 6th annual Invention Awards are here, from an inflatable tourniquet to a better lobster trap to spring-loaded hocket skates. This issue is all about the celebration of invention.
Plus: Making synthetic biology breakthroughs in a garage, building a constantly-moving ping-pong table, and a ridiculously overpowered barbecue.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Technology
- Engineer Details Plans to Build a Real, Burj-Dubai-Sized Starship Enterprise in 20 Years
- Video: Amazing Coating For Bottles' Interiors Lets Ketchup Flow Like Water
- Magnetic Jet Injection Device Can Shoot Any Drug Through the Skin, No Needle Required
- 100-Year Starship Project Forges Ahead With First Round of Funding
- Russian Space Chief: 'We’re Talking About Establishing Permanent Bases' On the Moon
- The Dawn of the Commercial Space Age is (Probably) Happening This Weekend
- Living in the Future: Multitouch, or How I Learned to Love the Mac
- Backpack Radar Can Detect Ambushers Within 150 Acres
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Would You Ride This Pencil-Shaped Capsule To Space?
Most Emailed
Technology
- NASA Says: Please Don't Touch Our Stuff When You Go to the Moon
- SpaceX Dragon Successfully Captured by International Space Station
- Backpack Radar Can Detect Ambushers Within 150 Acres
- This Summer, Take a Class on How to Design a Space Hotel
- Today in Good Reads: A Q&A With a Military Bioethicist
- Magnetic Jet Injection Device Can Shoot Any Drug Through the Skin, No Needle Required
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills
- Snazzy All-in-One "Vancouver Poles" to Replace Ugly Urban Forest of Cell Towers and Cables
- Would You Ride This Pencil-Shaped Capsule To Space?
Most Viewed
Technology
- Living in the Future: Multitouch, or How I Learned to Love the Mac
- NASA Says: Please Don't Touch Our Stuff When You Go to the Moon
- SpaceX Dragon Successfully Captured by International Space Station
- Backpack Radar Can Detect Ambushers Within 150 Acres
- This Summer, Take a Class on How to Design a Space Hotel
- Today in Good Reads: A Q&A With a Military Bioethicist
- Magnetic Jet Injection Device Can Shoot Any Drug Through the Skin, No Needle Required
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills
- Snazzy All-in-One "Vancouver Poles" to Replace Ugly Urban Forest of Cell Towers and Cables
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
I was about to say, I wouldn't want to land on frozen ground.
I'm not sure how fast there are falling... but if it greater than a certain speed (not sure what) then the water would act just as the frozen ground due to surface tension.
OHHHHH! ..........
Welcome. Welcome to Kazakhstan.
One thing cosmonauts complain of most often shortly after touchdown: hemorrhoids.