NASA announced that Commander Peggy Whitson, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko of the 16th International Space Station crew, together with the South Korean astronaut So-yeon Yi landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan around 4:30 a.m. EDT Saturday.

Still there was a minor incident as the landing was approximately 295 miles from the expected site. Due to this incident, the arrival of the recovery forces was delayed with approximately 45 minutes.

Expedition 16 crew members undocked their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 1: 06 a.m. Saturday. The deorbit burn to slow the Soyuz and begin its descent toward the Earth took place at 3:40 a.m.
All three people aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft were reported to be in good condition after their re-entry and landing.

According to Mission Control spokesperson Valery Lyndin, quoted by the Associated Press, said that during the descent the crew had experienced gravitational forces up to 10 times those on Earth. The three astronauts were being examined on site by medical officials and a further evaluation oh their health status will take place in Moscow.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson was the first female in command of the International Space Station and the first American to spend as much as 377 days in space. At the same time, she holds the women’s world record for spacewalking, totaling 39 hours and 46 minutes during 6 spacewalks. On April 16 she broke the previous mark of 374 days set by Mike Foale on his six flights.

She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice University in Houston. She began working for NASA as a research biochemist in 1989 and was selected as an astronaut in 1996.

Malenchenko, 46, a Russian Air Force colonel, is making his third long-duration spaceflight. He spent 126 days aboard the Russian space station Mir beginning July 1, 1994, and commanded Expedition 7, spending 185 days in space beginning April 26, 2006. He also was a member of the STS-106 crew of Atlantis on an almost-12-day mission to the station beginning Sept. 8, 2000.

So-yeon Yi is the first South Korean to fly in space and the youngest female astronaut. She was selected as a candidate for the first South Korean space mission in 2006. Since that time she has worked as a research fellow in the Department of Korean Astronaut Mission Project of the Korean Aerospace Research Institute. In September 2007, Yi was assigned to train as a spaceflight participant. During her stay at ISS, So-yeon Yi conducted 18 scientific experiments.