The three landed safely in Kazakhstan around 12:36 Israel time
Sheikh Muzaffar Shukor and the 15th and 16th space station crews on Friday
Update: 13:14
About three quarters of an hour ago - 12:36 Israel time, the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan with two Russian cosmonauts on board who returned from the space station after a six-month stay, the two Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kutov were members of the station's 15th crew. Together with them, the Malaysian astronaut who visited the station according to an agreement between the two governments, on the basis of a space tourist, also returned to Earth.
00: 15 Update
The International Space Station's 15th crew prepares to return home, members of the 16th crew were busy over the weekend preparing for the arrival of the space shuttle Discovery. The exchange of commanders ceremony took place on Friday (the day before yesterday), and the 15th team officially transferred command to the 16th team.
Receiving the command from cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, the commander of the 16th crew, the American astronaut Peggy Whiston, said "This was an impressive mission, you showed a wonderful performance".
The outgoing team Yurchikhin and Oleg Kutov, and the Malaysian space tourist Sheik Muzafer Shukur, who arrived together with the new team about a week ago, will leave for Earth in the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft, they are expected to lock the airlock at 9:14 am Israel time on Sunday and land in the Arabah Kazakhstan three hours and twenty minutes later.
Shukor, who flew thanks to an agreement between his government and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) arrived at the station on October 12. Flight engineer Clay Anderson, who joined the crew on June 15, will remain on the station as the 16th crew member until his replacement, astronaut Dan Tanney, arrives next week on mission STS-120.
