Just days after the rough landing of Expedition 16 members, aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-11 capsule, speculations over the dangers they have been exposed to have started to appear. Interfax cited yesterday a Russian official close to the investigation as saying that the members were in fact very lucky to have landed unharmed.

The same agency also reported that, according to the same official, the space craft entered Earth’s atmosphere with the hatch first, instead of with its heat shields, which caused the Soyuz capsule’s antenna to burn, interrupting any mean of communication with the mission control center.

This wasn’t a first for NASA, as they have experienced the same problems on Expedition 6. However, they said they weren’t that worried about the capsule missing its target. William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, told reporters during a teleconference on Tuesday that the incident was unfortunate, but it wasn’t that much of a problem for the astronauts as it has been speculated.

Even though a cause hasn’t been established yet, NASA officials have left the investigation in the hands of Russian authorities. “I have complete confidence with the way Russia is handling the mishap and hasn’t asked to be part of the investigation,” Gerstenmaier said, as quoted by the Associated Press.

Although a reason of concern, Gerstenmaier said this incident in particular has nothing to do with future space flights. He discussed the rough landing, saying that Soyuz managed to contact the Russian mission control center only half-hour after landing.

He said Malenchenko had “detected some smoke in the cabin” or “maybe not smoke, but actually the smell of burning materials,” which is not unusual. However, the causes of the incident will become available in one or two months.

Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko said during a press conference after the landing that none of the crew members did anything to alter the natural course of the flight, and only an investigation will be able to tell what went wrong.

Describing his experience with the landing, Malenchenko said the locals “were surprised and could not believe their eyes […] They could not believe that we had been to space. They believed us when they saw the spacesuits,” he added.