NASA ISS Expedition 25 Crew returns safely

Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft on the Kazakhstan steppe Thursday, wrapping up a five-month stay aboard the International Space Station.

Russian cosmonaut Yurchikhin, the Soyuz commander, was at the controls of the spacecraft as it undocked at 8:23 p.m. EST from the station's Rassvet module. The trio landed at 11:46 p.m. (10:46 a.m. on Nov. 26 local time) at a site northeast of the town of Arkalyk.

Working in frigid temperatures, Russian recovery teams were on hand within minutes to help the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and re-adjust to gravity.

› View video of Soyuz landing

The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 15. As members of the Expedition 24 and 25 crews, they spent 163 days in space, 161 of them aboard the station, and celebrated the 10th anniversary of continuous human life, work and research by international crews aboard the station on Nov. 2.

During their mission, the Expedition 24 and 25 crew members worked on more than 120 microgravity experiments in human research; biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; technology development; and Earth and space sciences.

NASA ISS: Views from the ESA Cupola

From 220 miles above Earth, the Expedition 25 crew aboard the International Space Station shot this night time image of the Gulf of Mexico, USA.

The city of Mobile, New Orleans, and Houston, Texas, are visible as the view moves southeastward.

The Interstate Highway 20 cities of Jackson, Shreveport, Dallas and Fort Worth are also visible further inland.

The view extends northward to Little Rock and Oklahoma City

NASA Images: Pyramid Lake

Pyramid Lake in western Nevada, near the California border, is a remnant of the ancient and much larger Lake Lahontan, which formed during the last Ice Age when the regional climate was significantly cooler and wetter.

Pyramid Lake and the now-dry Lake Winnemucca are two of seven smaller lakes that collectively formed Lake Lahontan when water levels were higher. At its peak volume during the late Pleistocene Epoch (approximately 15,000 years ago), Lake Lahontan covered much of western Nevada and extended into California.

The deepest part of Lake Lahontan survives today as Pyramid Lake, and it is well known to geologists because of the spectacular calcium carbonate deposits found there.

The lake takes its name from one such pyramid-shaped deposit of tufa, rock formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate from spring water, lake water, or a combination of the two.

Over time, these deposits develop a wide variety of forms—including mounds, towers, sheets, and reefs—while sometimes coating other rocks.

The tufa is exposed when water levels drop due to changes in regional climate, the diversion of water for human use, or both (Mono Lake in California for example).

This ISS astronaut photograph (taken by the Expedition 25 crew) also captures sunglint—light reflected off of a water surface back towards the observer—on the northern (lower end in this image) and southeastern (upper) ends of the lake.

Two large spiral whorls are visible in sunglint at the northern end, likely the result of wind patterns that disturb the water surface and cause localised variations in the amount of light reflected back to the International Space Station.

NASA - Shuttle Expedition 25 crew

NASA - Expedition 25

Pictured at centre right is NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, Expedition 25 commander. Also pictured (from the left) are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri; NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Shannon Walker; along with Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, all flight engineers. Image credit: NASA