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> Return module of Soyuz TM-33 - 05/2002
Return module of Soyuz TM-33 - 05/2002
author: ESA/ASI/S. Corvaja/Novapix
reference: e-is004-01320
Image Size 300 DPI: 15 * 25 cm
Russian recovery team members gather around the scorched return module of Soyuz TM-33, shortly after its landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan and the completion of the Marco Polo mission to the International Space Station (ISS), on May 5, 2002. The recovery team is about to install a scaffolding to help the crew out the module. The Marco Polo mission, with ESA astronaut Roberto Vittori, from Italy, was performed under an agreement between Russia's Rosaviakosmos, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and ESA. Roberto Vittori was launched into space onboard Soyuz TM-34 at 12:26 local time on April 25 with Russian mission commander Yuri Gidzenko and South African flight participant Mark Shuttleworth. The spacecraft successfully docked with the ISS two days later. Roberto Vittori spent one week onboard the orbital outpost, performing experiments, and returned to Earth with his crewmates onboard Soyuz TM-33. Soyuz TM-33 landed safely some 26 km south-east of the city of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan, at 10:51 local time, concluding a mission that lasted 237 hours and 25 minutes.
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