Three ISS Crew Members Safely Land in Kazakhstan

Soyuz TMA-15 with three crew members from the International Space Station (ISS) landed safely in Kazakhstan in the wee hours this morning. Frank De Winne (Belgium), who served as commander of Expedition 21 and was the first European ISS commander, Roman Romanenko (Russia), and Robert Thirsk (Canada) landed at 2:15 am EST (1:15 pm local time in Kazakhstan). ISS temporarily has a crew of only two — Jeff Williams (US) and Maxim Suraev (Russia) — for the next several weeks until the next Soyuz arrives with three new ISS crew members on December 23. A full ISS complement is 6 crew members.