QTVR Sightings Home Page Features Aiming for Arkalyk by Craig Mellow NASA astronauts land on a runway, in the Florida sunshine, about an hour's drive from Disney World.
Cosmonauts come home the hard way.
Our intrepid writer braves a blizzard in Kazakhstan to report on the landing of the Russian Soyuz TM-26 spacecraft last February. Unlike early U.S. space capsules, the Soyuz lands on solid ground, using a system of parachutes, braking rockets, and spring-backed seats to soften the impact. Still, a Soyuz landing isn't for the faint-hearted. In the past cosmonauts have strayed hundreds of miles off course and had their teeth broken on impact. Mellow describes the goings-on in the Kazakh town of Kustanai, where everyone from Russian generals to smarmy local officials wait to greet the returning cosmonauts.