Russian spacecraft lands safely after harrowing descent

This isn’t discrimination. I’m just saying that when a majority [of the crew] is female, sometimes certain kinds of unsanctioned behavior or something else occurs.

Anatoly Perminov, Russian Federal Space Agency chief

A Russian space capsule touched down in Kazakhstan after hurtling through Earth’s atmosphere in a steeper-than-normal descent, subjecting the three-nation-crew to severe G-forces and landing hundreds of kilometers off target.

It was the second time in a row — and the third since 2003 — that the Soyuz landing went awry, though none were believed to have caused permanent medical problems for the crews.

Saturday’s mission saw the return to Earth of South Korea’s first astronaut, Yi So-yeon. She spent 10 days in space before joining US astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko in the three-and-a-half hour, bone-jarring descent from the international space station.

Russian engineers target returning capsules to a landing site near the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan’s barren north. But after entering the atmosphere, the TMA-11 capsule for some reason began a “ballistic trajectory.”

That subjects the crew to G-forces more than double what occurs under normal circumstances, Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said.

Parachutes then slowed the craft and dropped it onto the Central Asian steppes in a puff of dust around 20 minutes late and some 420km off target. It took another 25 minutes before search helicopters could locate the capsule.

“The most important thing is that the crew is healthy and well,” Russian Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov told a post-landing news conference. “The landing occurred normally, but according to a back-up plan — the descent was a ballistic trajectory.”

Later, Perminov was asked about the presence of two women on the Soyuz and a naval superstition that having women aboard a ship was bad luck.

“You know in Russia, there are certain bad omens about this sort of thing, but thank God that everything worked out successfully,” he said. “Of course in the future, we will work somehow to ensure that the number of women will not surpass” the number of men.

Challenged by a reporter, Perminov responded: “This isn’t discrimination. I’m just saying that when a majority [of the crew] is female, sometimes certain kinds of unsanctioned behavior or something else occurs, that’s what I’m talking about.”